Jusqu’à XXIᵉ siècle
Ethiopia
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Ethiopia maintained a continuous historical literary tradition in the Semitic languages Ge’ez and Amharic for roughly two millennia. By the fourteenth century, this tradition was producing historical writing, including the Chronicles of the Wars of Amda Sion. The extract presents Ethiopian historiography as an indigenous African tradition distinct from Arabic chronicles written in an imported classical language.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
The extract identifies Ethiopia as a distinctive center of African historical writing. Unlike regions where Arabic served as the principal written language of historical chronicles, Ethiopia possessed its own Semitic languages, first Ge’ez and later Amharic. In these languages, a continuous literary tradition was preserved and developed over approximately two millennia.
This tradition was already producing historical works by the fourteenth century. One cited example is the Chronicles of the Wars of Amda Sion, which demonstrates that Ethiopian historical writing had developed before the expansion of nineteenth-century scholarship and colonial historiography. The example also links literary production to the recording of political and military history.
Ethiopian writing was accessible to European scholarship through missionary and Orientalist work. Pero Paez and Manoel de Almeida undertook historical writing about Ethiopia, while Job Ludolf later produced a full-scale history. These later works are presented as part of the history of encounters with Ethiopian records rather than as substitutes for the indigenous literary tradition itself.
Jusqu’à XXIᵉ siècle
Ethiopia
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Ethiopia maintained a continuous historical literary tradition in the Semitic languages Ge’ez and Amharic for roughly two millennia. By the fourteenth century, this tradition was producing historical writing, including the Chronicles of the Wars of Amda Sion. The extract presents Ethiopian historiography as an indigenous African tradition distinct from Arabic chronicles written in an imported classical language.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
The extract identifies Ethiopia as a distinctive center of African historical writing. Unlike regions where Arabic served as the principal written language of historical chronicles, Ethiopia possessed its own Semitic languages, first Ge’ez and later Amharic. In these languages, a continuous literary tradition was preserved and developed over approximately two millennia.
This tradition was already producing historical works by the fourteenth century. One cited example is the Chronicles of the Wars of Amda Sion, which demonstrates that Ethiopian historical writing had developed before the expansion of nineteenth-century scholarship and colonial historiography. The example also links literary production to the recording of political and military history.
Ethiopian writing was accessible to European scholarship through missionary and Orientalist work. Pero Paez and Manoel de Almeida undertook historical writing about Ethiopia, while Job Ludolf later produced a full-scale history. These later works are presented as part of the history of encounters with Ethiopian records rather than as substitutes for the indigenous literary tradition itself.