RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Abravanel Abyssinia
Chaldea, Mesopotamia, and Assyria, with his seat at Takrit on the Tigris (1264). It was the time of the Mongol inroads under Hulaku, and the country was sorely devastated; but by his discretion and the high repute in which he was held at the Tatar court, Abulfaraj was able to do much to ameliorate the condition of the Christians. As a writer his importance is due to his wide acquaintance with the knowledge of his time; his works are exceedingly numerous upon the most diverse subjects. A few of them are in Arabic, but the greater number in Syriac.
Bibliography: E. Nestle, Syrische Grammatik, " Literature/.," pp. 46-50, Berlin, 1888 (gives published works of Abulfaraj); life by T. Noldeke, in Orientalische Skizzen, pp. 250 sqq., Berlin, 1892, Eng. transl., London, 1892; W. Wright, Short History of Syriac Literature, pp. 265- 281, London, 1894 (reprinted, with additions, from Encyc. Brit., xxii.; gives complete list of works of Abulfaraj); Hauck-Herzog, RE, i. 123-124, ii. 780; E. A. W. Budge, The Laughable Stories collected by Mar Gregory John Bar Hebrceus, Syriac Text and Eng. transl., London,
1897.
ABUNA. See Abyssinia and the Abyssinian Church, §§ 2, 5. ABYSSINIA AND THE ABYSSINIAN CHURCH.
Worthlessness of Traditional History (§1.)
Introduction of Christianity (§ 2).
Close Connection with Egypt in Doctrine (§ 3).
The Canon and Creed (§ 4).
Organization of the Church (§ 5).
Beliefs and Practises (§ 6).
The Falashas (§ 7).
Christian Missions (§8).
The modern Abyssinia is a country of East Africa, between the Red Sea and the Blue Nile, to the southeast of Nubia. Its boundaries are not definite, and its area is variously given from 150,000 to 240,000 square miles. Estimates of the population vary from 3,500,000 to 8,500,000. In antiquity the term " Ethiopia " was used rather vaguely to signify Abyssinia (with somewhat wider extent than at present), Nubia, and Sennar. These were the lands of the Ethiopian Church, of which the Abyssinian Church is the modern representative. Christianity is now confined to the plateau and mountain regions of Abyssinia.
Native tradition ascribes the name of the country
and the foundation of the state to Ethiops, the son
of Cush, the son of Ham. The queen
i. Worth- of Sheba who visited Solomon is lessness of identified with an Abyssinian queen, Traditional Makeda; and her visit is said to have
History, led to the conversion of the people to Judaism. The tradition continues that she bore to Solomon a son, Menelik, who was educated in Jerusalem by his father. He then returned to the old capital, Axum, and brought with him both Jewish priests and the ark, which was carried away from the Temple in Jerusalem and deposited in the Ethiopian capital; and from that time to the present Abyssinia is said to have been ruled by a Solomonic dynasty, the succession having been broken only now and then by usurpers and conquerors. Of course, all this has no historic value. That Judaism preceded Christianity in the land is not proved by the observance of certain Jewish customs (such as circumcision, the Mosaic laws about foods, the Sabbath, etc.) ; these may
have been introduced from ancient Egypt or the Coptic Church. A Jewish immigration, however, must have taken place, as it is proved by the presence in the land of numerous Jews, the socalled Falashas (see below, §7); but the time, manner, and magnitude of this immigration can not be ascertained.
There is no independent native tradition of the
conversion of the Abyssinians to Christianity.
According to the Greek and Roman
2. Intro- Church historians (Rufinus, i. 9; duction of Theodoret, i. 22; Socrates, i. 19;
Christi- Sozomen, ii. 24), in the time of Conanity. stantine the Great (about 330), Frumentius and Edesius accompanied the uncle of the former from Tyre on a voyage in the Red Sea. They were shipwrecked on the Ethiopian coast and carried by the natives to the court at Axum. There they won confidence and honor, and were allowed to preach Christianity. Edesius afterward returned to Tyre; but Frumentius continued the work, went to Alexandria, where Athanasius occupied the patriarchal see, obtained missionary coworkers from him, and was himself consecrated bishop and head of the Ethiopian Church, with the title Abba Salama, " Father of Peace," which is still in use along with the later Abuna, " Our Father." It is not improbable that Christianity was known to the Abyssinians before the time of Frumentius (whose date has been fixed by Dillmann at 341); but he is properly regarded as the founder of the Ethiopian Church. In the fifth and sixth centuries the mission received a new impulse by the immigration of a number of monks (Monophysites) from upper Egypt.
The close connection between the Abyssinian
Church and Egypt is very apparent in the sphere
of doctrine. Like the Coptic Church,
3. Close the Abyssinian holds a monophysitic Connection view of the person of Christ. This
with question has long been settled; but Egypt in it is still debated whether Christ had Doctrine, a double or threefold birth. The Abuna and the majority of the priests hold to the twofold view, which is the more purely monophysitic. The threefold view was introduced by a monk about 100 years ago, and is prevalent in Shoa (the southern and southeastern district). Also the questions of the person and dignity of Mary, — whether she really bore God, or was only the mother of Jesus; whether she is entitled to the same worship as Christ, etc., — are eagerly debated though it seems to be the general view that an almost divine worship is due to the Virgin, and that she and the saints are indispensable mediators between Christ and man. Some even assert that the saints, who died not for their own sins, died like Christ for the sins of others.
The church books are all in the Ethiopic language, which is a dead tongue, studied only by the priests, and not understood by them. For the Ethiopic Bible translation see Bible Versions, A, VIII. The Abyssinian canon, called Semanya Ahadu, " Eighty-one," because it consists of eighty-one sacred books, comprises, besides the sixty-five books of the usual canon, the Apocrypha, the
Abyssinia Acacius of Csesarea