The Jesuits in Ethiopia (1609-1641)
Latin Letters in Translation
edited by Wendy Laura Belcher, translated by Jessica Wright and Leon Grek and preface by Leonardo Cohen
This volume constitutes the first English translation of Latin letters relating to the Jesuit mission in Ethiopia. The letters document a fascinating encounter between Western and African Christianities and detailed accounts of the theological, political, and educational activities of the Jesuit mission, as well as the significant role played by Ethiopian aristocratic and royal women in resisting the imposition of Western Catholicism.
This volume constitutes the first English translation of Latin letters relating to the Jesuit mission in Ethiopia. It covers a period beginning shortly after the accession of Emperor Susenyos, who would convert to Catholicism in 1612 and declare Roman Catholicism the religion of Ethiopia in 1621, to the ejection of the Jesuits by Susenyos’s son Fasiladas in 1633 and the suppression of the mission over the course of the following decade. The letters document a fascinating encounter between Western and African Christianities and detailed accounts of the theological, political, and educational activities of the Jesuit mission, as well as the significant role played by Ethiopian aristocratic and royal women in resisting the imposition of Western Catholicism. Much of the official correspondence of the mission remained inaccessible to readers without knowledge of Latin, including all the letters of the head of the mission, Patriarch Mendes, who conducted his correspondence mostly in Latin. The translations by Jessica Wright and Leon Grek are accompanied by a substantial historical introduction by Leonardo Cohen, and an extensive glossary by Wendy Laura Belcher and Emily Dalton. The volume as a whole is a valuable resource for readers with or without access to the letters in the original Latin, and to scholars of Ethiopian history, African studies, colonial and postcolonial studies, and Jesuit and missionary history.
- Preface by Leonardo Cohen
- Edited by Wendy Laura Belcher
- Translated by Leon Grek
- Translated by Jessica Wright
Other Titles in this Series
From Process to Procedure. Elders’ Mediation and Formality in Central Ethiopia
Elders' Mediation and Formality in Central Ethiopia
Volume 75
Lebendige Uberlieferung
Geschichte und Erinnerung der muslimischen Silt'e Athiopiens With an English Summary
Volume 74
Martyrium Arethae Arabice. Le versioni arabe del Martirio di Areta (BHG 166)
Edizione critica e traduzione annotata. A cura di Paolo La Spisa. Presentazione di Alessandro Bausi
Volume 86
Recueil des inscriptions de l’Ethiopie des periodes pre-axoumite et axoumite
Tome III - Traductions et commentaires. B. Les inscriptions semitiques par Abraham J. Drewes
Volume 85
Deutsch-Tigrinisches Worterbuch
Bearbeitet von Freweyni Habtemariam, Mussie Tesfagiyorgis,Tedros Hagos und Tesfay Tewolde Yohannes
Volume 78
Faith at the Crossroads
Religious Syncretism and dispute settlement in Northern Ethiopia: A study of Sufi Shrine in North Eastern Ethiopia
Volume 82
Flexibel aus Tradition / Burji in Athiopien und Kenia
Unter Verwendung der Aufzeichnungen von Helmut Straube / With explanation of some cultural items in English
Volume 71
Secundus Taciturnus
Die arabischen, athiopischen und syrischen Textzeugen einer didaktischen Novelle aus der romischen Kaiserzeit Mit einem Beitrag von Stefan Weninger zur Ubersetzungssprache der athiopischen Version
Volume 81
The Nafka Documents
The despatches, memoranda, reports and correspondence describing and explaining the Stories of the Feudal Societies of the Red Sea Littoral from the Christian-Muslim Wars of the Sixteenth Century to the Establishment 1885-1901 of the Italian Colony o
Volume 53
Research in Ethiopian Studies
Selected papers of the 16th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Trondheim July 2007
Volume 72
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