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The library of Emperor Tewodros II at Mäqdäla (Magdala)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Rita Pankhurst
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Extract

The Emperor Tewodros II (1855–68), although remembered to-day mainly as an energetic modernizer, was also involved to a significant degree in the history of traditional Ethiopian libraries.

Tewodros had intended to build a great church dedicated to Mädhane Aläm ‘Saviour of the World’, on Christian ground near the natural fortress of Mäqdäla which had served him as state prison, granary, and family sanctuary no less than as a storehouse for his accumulated treasures.

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Articles
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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , February 1973 , pp. 15 - 42
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1973

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References

1 Markham, C. R., A history of the Abyssinian expedition, London, 1869, 357–8Google Scholar. A photograph of the church is reproduced in Myatt, F., The march to Magdala, London, 1970, between pp. 144 and 145Google Scholar. The original photograph is in the Army Museums Ogilby Trust, War Office, London. One of Tewodros's chroniclers, Aläqa Wäldä Maryam, mentions that the Emperor reopened two churches at Mäqdäla, the second being Egzetnä Maryam. Vide Mondon-Vidailhet, C. (ed.), Chronique de Théodoros II, roi des rois d'Ethiopie, Paris, [1905?], translation, 22Google Scholar. The latter church does not appear to have been in use in 1868.

2 Illustrated London News, 30 May 1868; vide also Blanc, H., A narrative of captivity in Abyssinia, London, 1868, 210Google Scholar.

3 Waldmeier, T., Erlebnisse in den Jahren 1858–1868, Basel, 1869, 59Google Scholar.

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7 Markham, , op. cit., 357–8Google Scholar.

8 Stanley, H. M., Coomassie and Magdala, London, 1874, 457Google Scholar; a photograpli of the treasury appears as No. 44 in a contemporary album of photographs of the expedition. The album is No. 204 in the Manuscript Collection, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Haile Sellassie I University. Addis Ababa; No. 45 in this album is the photograph reproduced by Myatt and mentioned on p. 15, n. 1, above.

9 Myatt, F., The march to Magdala, London, 1970, 165Google Scholar.

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12 Hayward, H. B., ‘Extracts from the diary of Major-General, then Captain H. B. Hayward, during the Abyssinian expedition of 1868’, The Sherwood Foresters, Nottinghamshire and Derby-shire Regiment: 1927 Regimental Annual (Derby), [1927?], 300Google Scholar.

13 Waldmeier, , op. cit., 118Google Scholar; vide also Acton, R., The Abyssinian expedition and the life and reign of King Theodore, London, 1868, 75Google Scholar; Stern, H. A., The captive missionary, London, 1869, 396Google Scholar.

14 Stanley, , op. cit., 457–9Google Scholar; vide also Flad, J. M., Zwölf Jahre in Abessinien, Leipzig, 1887, II, 72Google Scholar.

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18 Bond, B. (ed.), Victorian military campaigns, London, 1967, 149Google Scholar; vide also Acton, , op. cit., 75Google Scholar.

19 Milward to Lord Enfield, 27 November 1872, FO 1/29.

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21 Chojnacki, S. and Marshall, I. (ed.), ‘Colonel Milward's Abyssinian journal 2 December 1867 to 13 June 1868’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, VII, 1, 1969, 107–8Google Scholar. The original diary is in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Haile Sellassie I University.

22 Illustrated London News, 13 Jun e 1868; vide also Stumm, F., Meine Erlebnisse bei der englischen Expedition in Abessinien, Frankfurt am Main, 1868Google Scholar; Bechtinger, , op. cit., 234Google Scholar.

23 Illustrated London News, 13 June 1868; Myatt, , op. cit., 168Google Scholar.

24 Illustrated London News, 30 May 1868, report of Major Leveson.

25 ibid., 23 May 1868.

26 Holland, T. J. and Hozier, M. H., Record of the expedition to Abyssinia, London, 1870, II, 78Google Scholar.

27 Telegram from Sir Robert Napier to Sir Stafford Northcote from Antalo, 13 May 1868. Quoted in Illustrated London News, 30 May 1868.

28 ibid.; von Seckendorff, G. B., Meine Erlebnisse mit dem englischen Expeditionscorps Abessinien 1867–1868, Potsdam, 1869, 178Google Scholar.

29 Seckendorff, Von, op. cit., 178Google Scholar.

30 Stanley, , op. cit., 467Google Scholar.

31 Stumm, , op. cit., 134Google Scholar; Illustrated London News, 30 May 1868.

32 Stanley, , op. cit., 467Google Scholar.

33 Chojnacki, and Marshall, , art. cit., 108Google Scholar.

34 Milward to Enfield, 27 November 1872, FO 1/29.

35 Seckendorff, Von, op. cit., 177Google Scholar.

36 Stanley, , op. cit., 470Google Scholar.

37 ibid., 471.

38 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., II, 371Google Scholar.

39 ibid., 370.

40 Acton, , op. cit., 75Google Scholar; vide also Flad, , op. cit., II, 72Google Scholar.

41 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., II, 396Google Scholar.

42 For a fuller description of Simpson's travels at this time vide Chojnacki, S., ‘William Simpson and his journey to Ethiopia’, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, vi, 2, 1968, 7–38Google Scholar.

43 Empress Teruwärq or Terunäš, second wife of Emperor Tewodros, who had declared her wish to accompany her son, Alämayyähu, to Bombay, died at Ayqulät on 15 May 1868, of a lung disease. The funeral ceremonies were performed the next morning and the Empress was buried at Čäläqot. They are vividly described by Simpson in continuation of the passages quoted above; vide also Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., II, 83Google Scholar; Hozier, H. M., The British expedition to Abyssinia, London, 1869, 258Google Scholar.

44 Simpson, W., The autobiography of William Simpson, R.I., ed. Eyre-Todd, G., London, 1903, 193–4Google Scholar.

45 idem, ‘An artist's jottings in Abyssinia’, Good Words, 1 October 1868, 612.

46 Chojnacki, , art. cit., 35Google Scholar.

47 This account of the disposal of the manuscripts in Ethiopia is repeated by Wright, W. in his Catalogue of the Ethiopic manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since 1847, London, 1877, p. iiiGoogle Scholar.

48 Seckendorff, Von, op. cit., 177Google Scholar.

49 Flad, , op. cit., II, 72Google Scholar.

50 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., II, 96Google Scholar.

51 The churches mentioned were: Agula'e Kidanä Meherät, Arra Mika'el, Tägogwa Johannes, Mälfa Maryam, Qäqäma Maryam, Čeh Kidanä Meherät, Mäqäle Kidanä Meherät. According to our informant there is now only one manuscript left at Agula'e, but in all the other churches except the one in Mäqäle, which was burned down by th e Italians, there are still ‘good books’.

52 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., II, 396–7Google Scholar.

53 ibid., 397.

54 Wright, , op. cit., p. ivGoogle Scholar. The Wright Catalogue describes 389 MSS in 408 numbers (which should have been 409 as the number CCCXCI is given in error to two different manuscripts, Or. 818 and Or. 820). Of these, the following do not belong to the Mäqdäla collection, as is clearly indicated by Wright, who marks the beginning and end of the collection in the index table respectively on pp. 329, Or. 480, and 334, Or. 829:

(a) 35 volumes acquired by the Museum 1847–67, commencing with Add. 18993, and ending with Or. 80, i.e. volumes acquired since the publication of Dillmann's catalogue of 1847;

(b) 3 volumes procured by Mr. Holmes on the way to Mäqdäla (Or. 451–3);

(c) 1 volume added to the Department by purchase (Or. 1378).

Vide also Zanutto, S., Bibliografia etiopica, secondo contribute: manoscritti etiopici, Roma, 1932, 67Google Scholar; Wright, , op. cit., pp. iii–ivGoogle Scholar. Ullendorff states that the Mäqdäla Collection at the British Museum consists of 373 MSS (‘The Ethiopic manuscripts in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle’, Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, xii, 1953, [pub.] 1954, 72Google Scholar; The Ethiopians, second ed., London, 1965, 19)Google Scholar. This figure was arrived at by actual counting of the manuscripts at the British Museum in 1953 (letter from E. Ullendorff to the present writer, 9 May 1972).

55 Letters from S. Streleyn to the present writer, 12 and 24 November 1971.

56 Ullendorff, , art. cit., 71–2Google Scholar.

57 idem, Catalogue of the Ethiopian manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, II, Oxford, 1951, p. vi.

58 idem, in E. Ullendorff and S. G. Wright, Catalogue of Ethiopian manuscripts in the Cambridge University Library, Cambridge, 1961, p. viii.

59 Wright, , op. cit., p. iv, noteGoogle Scholar.

60 Letters from S. Streleyn to the present writer, 12 and 24 November 1971.

61 Zanutto, , op. cit., 63Google Scholar; Laing, D., ‘A brief notice of an ancient ms. of the four Gospels, brought from Abyssinia, and presented to the Society (with other mss.), by Cap. Charles M'Inroy’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, VIII, 1871, 52–5Google Scholar.

62 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., I, 184Google Scholar.

63 Budge, E. A. W., Legends of Our Lady Mary the perpetual Virgin and her mother Hanna, London, 1933, pp. vii–viiiGoogle Scholar. Presumably Budge was convinced that the Meux manuscripts had belonged to the Imperial collection at Mäqdäla for on the title-page of the Legends it is stated that they were ‘translated from the Ethiopic manuscripts collected by King Theodore at Makdala andnow in the British Museum’. The title-page does not mention that the legends are translated only partly from manuscripts of the Museum. The preface makes this clear and also shows that Budge believed that the Meux manuscripts had originally been part of that collection. He writes: ‘Many scholars… have wondered how these five MSS become detached from the great Makdala Collection’.

64 MSS 2 and 3 were used as sources in Grohmann, A., Aethiopische Marienhymnen, Leipzig, 1919Google Scholar.

65 Menelik II was Emperor of Ethiopia 1889–1913.

66 Budge, , op. cit., p. xivGoogle Scholar.

67 ibid., pp. xiv–xv.

68 Times, 12 January 1911.

69 ibid.

70 ibid.

71 Times, 11 January 1911.

72 Times, 7 February 1911.

73 Budge, , op. cit., p. xv, n. 1Google Scholar.

74 Marcus, H. ‘The last years of the reign of the Emperor Menilek. 1906–13’, Journal of Semitic Studies, ix, I, 1964, 232–4Google Scholar.

75 Budge, , op. cit.. p. xv, n. 1Google Scholar.

76 Dawson, W. R., Who was who in Egyptology, London, 1951, 106–7Google Scholar.

77 Cerulli, E., ‘I manoscritti etiopici della Chester Beatty Library in Dublino’, Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Memorie, Classe di Scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, Ser. viii, Vol. xi, 6, 1965, 290–1Google Scholar.

78 Budge, E. A. W., The miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the life of Hannâ (Saint Anne), and the magical prayers of' Ahěta Mîkâêl, London, 1900Google Scholar.

79 The coloured facsimiles were reproduced in England by W. Griggs and were inserted in the English text. The Ethiopic texts were printed by the eminent German firm of W. Drugulin of Leipzig because the necessary fount of type did not exist in England.

80 idem, One hundred and ten miracles of Our Lady Mary, London. 1933, p.v.

81 Zanutto, , op. cit., 74Google Scholar; Reade, H., ‘An ancient Ethiopic vellum manuscript’, Bibliographer, 1883, 24Google Scholar.

82 Ullendorff, E., The Ethiopians, second ed., 19Google Scholar.

83 Cerulli, , art. cit., 310Google Scholar.

84 Rhodokanakis, N., Die äthiopischen Handschriften der k. k. Hofbibliothek zu Wien (Sitzungsberichte der k. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, CLI, Phil.-hist. Klasse, 4), Wien, 1906, 2, 17Google Scholar.

85 Dillmann, A., Die Handschriften-Verzeichnisse der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, III. Bd.: Verzeichniss der abessinischen Handschriften, Berlin, 1878, p. iiGoogle Scholar.

86 Zotenberg, H., Catalogue des manuscrits é'thiopiens de la Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1877, p. ivGoogle Scholar.

87 Grébaut, S. and Tisserant, E. (ed.), Bybliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae codices manu scripti recensiti. Codices Aethiopici Vaticani et Borgiani, Barberinianus Orientalis 2, Rossianus 865. Pars prior: enarratio codicum. Bybliotheca Vaticana, 1935, 853Google Scholar.

88 Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, ix, 1867–1870, [pub.] 1872, Appendix, pp. lx–lxiGoogle Scholar.

89 Zanutto, , op. cit., 155–6Google Scholar.

90 Wright, W., ‘List of the Magdala collection’, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, xxiv, 1870, 614–15Google Scholar.

91 Praetorius, F., Fabula de regina Sabaea apud Aethiopes, Halle, 1870Google Scholar.

92 Bezold, C., Kebra Nagast, die Herrlichkeit der Könige, Münehen, 1905Google Scholar.

93 Roux, H. Le, Chez la Reine, de Saba, Paris, 1914, 96–7Google Scholar. Zanutto also believed that the manu-script belonged personally to Tewodros, , vide op.cit., 147Google Scholar.

94 Haylä Maryam alleges that his father, who was from Aksum, witnessed an audience given by Yohannes to an embassy from Britain led by an admiral who presented him with a golden crown, which gift did not please him. When the admiral asked him for some message for the Queen, Yohannes is said to have replied: ‘Tell your Queen that the soldiers took from Tewodoros's room the book which is most prized by Ethiopian emperors. It is the history of the Queen of Sheba, of Solomon and their son: our book. I pray God it will come back’. Vide Roux, Le, op. cit., 97–9Google Scholar. There is no evidence of the return of a golden crown from England to Yohannes. The crown of Abuna Sälama, as well as his chalice, both taken a t Mäqdäla, are at the Victoria and Albert Museum; the gold crown of Tewodros was sent back to Ethiopia by King George V in 1925, the bearer being Ras Täfäri Mäkonnen. Vide Budge, , History of Abyssinia, London, 1928, II, 516–17Google Scholar; and the royal cap of Tewodros, together with his imperial seal, were returned by Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit to Ethiopia in 1965.

95 Napier to India Office, 29 October 1869, FO 1/28.

96 Kirkham to Granville, 10 and 31 October 1869, FO l/27b.

97 Ullendorff, E. and Demoz, A., ‘Two letters from the Emperor Yohannes of Ethiopia to Queen Victoria and Lord Granville’, BSOAS, xxxii, 1, 1969, 135–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

98 Kuratä Re'esu. This picture was traditionally carried into battle and is mentioned in several chronicles; vide Guidi, I., Vocabolario amarico–italiano, Roma, 1901, 760–1Google Scholar. The chronicle of Iyasu II, 1730–55, mentions that the picture was donated to the church of Qwesqwam, on the outskirts of Gondar, by Iyasu's mother, Queen Mentewwab; vide I. Guidi (ed. and tr.), Annales regum Iyâsu II et Iyo'as (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, LXVI. Scriptores Aethiopici, XLIX), reprinted, Louvain, 1954, 108.

99 Yohannes to Victoria, 10 August 1872, FO 95/731. Crown copyright material is quoted by kind permission of the Controller of HMSO.

100 Yohannes to Granville, 10 August 1872, FO 95/731.

101 Granville to Elliot, 18 December 1872, FO l/27b.

102 Hammond to Jones, 29 November 1872, FO 1/29.

103 Jones to Granville, 17 December 1872, FO 1/29.

104 Victoria to Yohannes, 18 December 1872, FO l/27b.

105 Granville to Yohannes, 18 December 1872, FO l/27b.

106 Granville to Kirkham, 30 November 1872, FO 1/29; Granville to Buchanan, 20 December 1872, FO l/27b.

107 de Coursac, J., Le règne de Yohannes, Romans, Drôme, 1926, 118Google Scholar.

108 Yohannes to Victoria, 15 May 1873, FO l/27b.

109 Where Iyasu I was crowned. Vide Guidi, I. (ed. and tr.), Annales lohannis I, Iyāsu I et Bakāffā, IIGoogle Scholar (Corp. Script. Christ. Orient., xxv. Script. Aeth., vIII), reprinted, Louvain, 1955, 170.

110 Jones to Granville, 18 December 1872, FO 1/29.

111 Ullendorff, and Demoz, , art. oit., p. 135, n. 4Google Scholar.

112 Roux, Le, op. cit., 101Google Scholar.

113 ibid., 115–16.

114 ibid., 116–17.

115 ibid., 118.

116 ibid., 120. Also quoted, with slight variations, in Le Roux's introduction to MrsVorst, J. Van (tr.), Magda, Queen of Sheba; from the ancient royal Abyssinian manuscript ‘The glory of the kings’, after the French translation of Le Roux, H., New York and London, 1907, 21–2Google Scholar.

117 ibid., 22–3.

118 Probably ṭed, Juniperxis procera, or pencil cedar, a tree native to Ethiopia.

119 Roux, Le, Chez la Reine, 119–20Google Scholar.

120 A part of the text was published in his Chez la Heine de Saba, quoted above; a fuller translation was entitled Makeda, Heine de Saba. Chronique é'thiopienne, Paris, 1914Google Scholar: for the English translation see above p. 35, n. 116.

121 Rey, C. P., Unconquered Abyssinia, London, 1923, 164Google Scholar.

122 Daññe, Haylä Gäbre'el, Catalogue of manuscripts in Addis Ababa churches, Addis Ababa, 1963, I, No. 3, Raguel, No. 39Google Scholar. Unpublished manuscript, of which a copy is at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Haile Sellassie I University.

123 Sellase, Gäbrä, Chronique du règne de Ménélik II, Paris, 1930–1932, I, 210Google Scholar. See also ibid., p. vii. On the same page the editor of this chronicle, M. de Coppet, notes that Gäbrä Sellase used a Kebrä nägäst as a source for events preceding this appointment as Sähafe Te'ezaz in 1880, but it cannot, of course, be assumed that he was using the copy discussed above.

124 The tablet, usually of wood or stone, placed in the church's ‘holy of holies’ to symbolize the Ark of the Covenant.

125 It was consecrated by His Beatitude Abuna Baselyos on the first day of the Ethiopian year, 1 Mäskäräm 1948 (11 September 1955).

126 Times, 11 July 1942.

127 The Royal Naval Rocket Brigade was with the leading troops in the advance on Mäqdäla; vide Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., II, 473Google Scholar.

128 Ethiopian Herald, 18 May 1968; Ethiopia. Ministry of Information and Tourism, His Imperial Majesty visits Asia, the Far East and Australia, Addis Ababa, 1968, 75.

129 See above, p. 17, n. 14 and 15.

130 The soldiers looted the homes of the prisoners. Waldmeier, , op. eit., 118Google Scholar, specifically mentions that they took books. Markham, , op. cit., 365Google Scholar, mentions that gently nurtured ladies among the fugitives ‘were eager to sell their personal ornaments, their sacred pictures and books… for the means of buying bread’.

131 Flad, , op. cit., II, 72Google Scholar, confirms that there was no looting on the way to and from Mäqdäla. Orders to pay for everything were strictly enforced, and, indeed, high prices were charged and paid. Vide Chojnacki, , art. cit., 36Google Scholar. Not too much weight need be attached to the account of the French traveller, A. Girard, who, after visiting Adwa in September 1868, was told that the English officers had emptied all the church libraries (Girard, A., Souvenirs d'un voyage en Abyssinie, 1868–1869, Le Caire, 1873, 242–3)Google Scholar. The opposite is attested by numerous other accounts of the expedition.

132 Wright, , op. cit., p. iiiGoogle Scholar.

133 Flad, , op. cit., II, 72Google Scholar.

134 Holland, and Hozier, , op. cit., II, 397Google Scholar.

135 ibid., II, 397–8.

136 Wright, , op. cit., p. ivGoogle Scholar.

137 Budge, E. A. W. (ed. an d tr.), The life mid exploits of Alexander the Great, Cambridge, 1896Google Scholar.

138 Gleichen, E., With the mission to Menelik 1897, London, 1898, 145CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

139 Zanutto, , op. cit., 144Google Scholar.

140 This paper uses a modified form of the transliteration system devised by Stephen Wright and adopted by the Institute of Ethiopian Studies; it recommends that the very well established names of a few people and places be left in the commonly accepted spelling. This recommendation has in general been followed here.