Dispute over precedence and protocol: Hagiography and forgery in 19th-century Ethiopia

Abstract

This study investigates the textual and legal issues conveyed by records of a court case that took place in 1897 involving the Ethiopian churches of Dima and Märtulä Maryam over precedence, court etiquette, and decorum. My analysis focuses on two imperial judicial verdicts and letters addressed to King Täklä Haymanot (1881–1901) from Emperor Menilek II (r. 1889–1913) which the case generated. It will show that, very much like legal documents, the letters were written to stand for all time, and their preservation served an ongoing legal and administrative purpose. The study will also closely analyze the judicial assembly’s handling of Gädlä Abreha wäAṣebha, a forged hagiographic text that was presented to the court by Märtulä Maryam as evidence to defend its claims to precedency and status. It argues that this text was written in the late 19th century at the church of Abreha wä-Aṣbeha in Tegray at the instigation of Märtulä Maryam.

Keywords

• Ethiopia
• Menelik II
• forgery
• letters
• Märtulä Maryam
• Abreha and Aṣbeḥa