Here you can explore some general information about the project. See also Beta maṣāḥəft institutional web page. Select About to meet the project team and our partners. Visit the Guidelines section to learn about our encoding principles. The section Data contains the Linked Open Data information, and API the Application Programming Interface documentation for those who want to exchange data with the Beta maṣāḥǝft project. The Permalinks section documents the versioning and referencing earlier versions of each record.
Click to get back to the home page. Here you can find out more about the project team, the cooperating projects, and the contact information. You can also visit our institutional page. Find out more about our Encoding Guidelines. In this section our Linked Open Data principles are explained. Developers can find our Application Programming Interface documentation here. The page documents the use of permalinks by the project.
Descriptions of (predominantly) Christian manuscripts from Ethiopia and Eritrea are the core of the Beta maṣāḥǝft project. We (1) gradually encode descriptions from printed catalogues, beginning from the historical ones, (2) incorporate digital descriptions produced by other projects, adjusting them wherever possible, and (3) produce descriptions of previously unknown and/or uncatalogued manuscripts. The encoding follows the TEI XML standards (check our guidelines).
We identify each unit of content in every manuscript. We consider any text with an independent circulation a work, with its own identification number within the Clavis Aethiopica (CAe). Parts of texts (e.g. chapters) without independent circulation (univocally identifiable by IDs assigned within the records) or recurrent motifs as well as documentary additional texts (identified as Narrative Units) are not part of the CAe. You can also check the list of different types of text titles or various Indexes available from the top menu.
The clavis is a repertory of all known works relevant for the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition; the work being defined as any text with an independent circulation. Each work (as well as known recensions where applicable) receives a unique identifier in the Clavis Aethiopica (CAe). In the filter search offered here one can search for a work by its title, a keyword, a short quotation, but also directly by its CAe identifier - or, wherever known and provided, identifier used by other claves, including Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca (BHG), Clavis Patrum Graecorum (CPG), Clavis Coptica (CC), Clavis Apocryphorum Veteris Testamenti (CAVT), Clavis Apocryphorum Novi Testamenti (CANT), etc. The project additionally identifies Narrative Units to refer to text types, where no clavis identification is possible or necessary. Recurring motifs or also frequently documentary additiones are assigned a Narrative Unit ID, or thematically clearly demarkated passages from various recensions of a larger work. This list view shows the documentary collections encoded by the project Ethiopian Manuscript Archives (EMA) and its successor EthioChrisProcess - Christianization and religious interactions in Ethiopia (6th-13th century) : comparative approaches with Nubia and Egypt, which aim to edit the corpus of administrative acts of the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, for medieval and modern periods. See also the list of documents contained in the additiones in the manuscripts described by the Beta maṣāḥǝft project . Works of interest to Ethiopian and Eritrean studies.
While encoding manuscripts, the project Beta maṣāḥǝft aims at creating an exhaustive repertory of art themes and techniques present in Ethiopian and Eritrean Christian tradition. See our encoding guidelines for details. Two types of searches for aspects of manuscript decoration are possible, the decorations filtered search and the general keyword search.
The filtered search for decorations, originally designed with Jacopo Gnisci, looks at decorations and their features only. The filters on the left are relative only to the selected features, reading the legends will help you to figure out what you can filter. For example you can search for all encoded decorations of a specific art theme, or search the encoded legends. If the decorations are present, but not encoded, you will not get them in the results. If an image is available, you will also find a thumbnail linking to the image viewer. [NB: The Index of Decorations currently often times out, we are sorry for the inconvenience.] You can search for particular motifs or aspects, including style, also through the keyword search. Just click on "Art keywords" and "Art themes" on the left to browse through the options. This is a short cut to a search for all those manuscripts which have miniatures of which we have images.
We create metadata for all places associated with the manuscript production and circulation as well as those mentioned in the texts used by the project. The encoding of places in Beta maṣāḥǝft will thus result in a Gazetteer of the Ethiopian tradition. We follow the principles established by Pleiades and lined out in the Syriaca.org TEI Manual and Schema for Historical Geography which allow us to distinguish between places, locations, and names of places. See also Help page fore more guidance.
This tab offers a filtrable list of all available places. Geographical references of the type "land inhabited by people XXX" is encoded with the reference to the corresponding Ethnic unit (see below); ethnonyms, even those used in geographical contexts, do not appear in this list. Repositories are those locations where manuscripts encoded by the project are or used to be preserved. While they are encoded in the same way as all places are, the view offered is different, showing a list of manuscripts associated with the repository.
We create metadata for all persons (and groups of persons) associated with the manuscript production and circulation (rulers, religious authorities, scribes, donors, and commissioners) as well as those mentioned in the texts used by the project. The result will be a comprehensive Prosopography of the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition. See also Help page for more guidance.
We encode persons according to our Encoding Guidelines. The initial list was inherited from the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, and there are still many inconsistencies that we are trying to gradually fix. We consider ethnonyms as a subcategory of personal names, even when many are often used in literary works in the context of the "land inhabited by **". The present list of records has been mostly inherited from the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, and there are still many inconsistencies that we are trying to gradually fix.
This section collects some additional resources offered by the project. Select Bibliography to explore the references cited in the project records. The Indexes list different types of project records (persons, places, titles, keywords, etc). Visit Projects for information on partners that have input data directly in the Beta maṣāḥǝft database. Special ways of exploring the data are offered under Visualizations. Two applications were developed in cooperation with the project TraCES, the Gǝʿǝz Morphological Parser and the Online Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae.
Help

You are looking at work in progress version of this website. For questions contact the dev team.

Hover on words to see search options.

Double-click to see morphological parsing.

Click on left pointing hands and arrows to load related items and click once more to view the result in a popup.

Beta maṣāḥǝft API documentation

API search

You can search the XML data with the following call. The parameter q takes the query text where white space is interpreted as OR. You can use lucene query synthax like Pie* or use "Pierre AND Bel" to find both Pierre and Bel in the selected elements.

Return to table of contents
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/api/search?element={elementName}&q={searchString}

Searchable elements

  • title
  • persName
  • placeName
  • ref
  • ab
  • l
  • p
  • q
  • colophon
  • incipit
  • explicit
  • note
  • summary
  • abstract
Parameter name
Available values
You can add this parameter with value false (default is true) if you wish NOT to use the homophones substitutions. (see issue #744)
You can add this parameter with value false (default is true) if you wish for persons and places NOT to search in other elements than the direct children of place and person. See issue #926.

                

API KWIC search

You can search the XML data with a call like this:

Return to table of contents
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/api/kwicsearch?element={elementName}
                        &q={searchString}

Searchable elements

  • title
  • persName
  • placeName
  • ref
  • ab
  • l
  • p
  • q
  • colophon
  • incipit
  • explicit
  • note
  • summary
  • abstract
  • many other TEI elements
Parameter name
Available values

                

Query the RDF triplestore

RDF triples are exported from the TEI data as they are committed to the app. NOT everything is there yet.

Thanks to this package by ljo, you can enter a SPARQL query to the RDF representation of the data as a parameter to this api request. PLEASE use single quotes ' not double.

PREFIXes are already there, start with SELECT... A super tutorial on how to build SPARQL queries is here at Apache Jena

Here you can find the current ontology developed with Protégé.

Some examples of the data you are querying

Return to table of contents
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/api/SPARQL
Parameter name
Available values
query
The SPARQL query

Click on link

/api/SPARQL/json
Parameter name
Available values
query
The SPARQL query

                            
/api/SPARQL/relations/{$id}
Parameter name
Available values
id
the id of the resource

                

GET list of files in a collection

Depending on the type of record you are asking for you will get a different set of values in each item.

Return to table of contents

For all records:

  • uri
  • name
  • type
  • title

For manuscripts

  • support
  • institution (id)
  • material
  • keyword
  • language
  • content (ids)
  • keywords (ids)
  • scribe (ids)
  • patron (ids)
  • donor (ids)

For persons

  • occupation
  • role
  • gender

For places and institutions

  • place type (id)
  • tabot (id)

For textual and narrative units

  • witnesses (id)
  • keyword
  • author (id)
  • language
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/api/{collection}/list/xml
Parameter name
Available values
manuscripts, persons, places, works, narratives, institutions
from which item to start. Default: 1.
how many items per page to return. Default: 25

Click on link

/api/{collection}/list/json
Parameter name
Available values
from which item to start. Default: 1.
how many items per page to return. Default: 25

                

GET resource data

beside the methods below, for places and institutions geoJSON can be obtained appending .json to the entry url.

https://betamasaheft.eu/institutions/INS0002AAI.json Return to table of contents
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/api/{id}/tei

Click on link.

/api/{id}/json

This is an automatic serialization in json by rest XQ in exist


                

GET canonical title of file

Return to table of contents
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:

GET clavis IDs

Check the correct id exists here.

Return to table of contents
Pattern
parameters
Example
Result:
/api/clavis/{id}
api/clavis/LIT1367Exodus

                
/api/clavis?q=pilati
api/clavis?q=pilati

                
Pattern
parameters
Example
Result:
/api/clavis/all
Parameter name
Available values
type
BHG, BHL, BHO, H, KRZ, CAVT, CANT, CC

                

GET text (DTS APIs)

Check the correct id exists here.

Return to table of contents

We support all the Distributed Text Services specifications, from the starting endpoint https://betamasaheft.eu/api/dts .

This API is used for the text views in the application.

The DTS implementation is experimental and implements additional non canonical parts.

GET XML text of additions or specific catalogue record parts

This only works for manuscript catalogue records.

Return to table of contents
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/BetMas/api/otherMssText/{id}/{anchor}

Typically catalogue records will contain text in additions, extras, incipit, explicit and colophon or notes, but there might be more.

Parameter name
Available values
you can add any tei element name to specify the element who should have that id... but id are unique!

Click on link.

GET place data in KML or geoJSON.

This only works for manuscript catalogue records.

Return to table of contents
/api/geoJson/places
/api/geoJson/institutions
from which item to start. Default: 1.

            
/api/KML/places/{$id}

get places mentioned in one item

Click on link.

/api/KML/place/{$placeid}

get for one place all its attestations with date if available in the element

Click on link.

There are several other place related queries possible. Please, ask if you need anything in particular.

Search Dillmann lexicon

Search in the Dillmann lexicon works pretty much the same.

Return to table of contents
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/api/Dillmann/search/{element}?q={searchstring}

Searching in element form a lemma will return the id of that lemma.

  • form
  • sense
  • ref
  • gramGrp
  • lbl
  • pos
  • case
  • cit
  • foreign
Parameter name
Available values
you can add any tei dictionary element name to specify the element you want to search into.

                

GET list of lemmas from Dillmann lexicon

Return to table of contents
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/api/Dillmann/list/xml
Parameter name
Available values
from which item to start. Default: 1.

Click on link.

/api/Dillmann/list/json
Parameter name
Available values
from which item to start. Default: 1.

                

GET lemma from Dillmann Lexicon

You can see the raw data appending .xml to the lemma you land on. Alternatively a text only version is available appending .txt to your lemma url. These are not served by this API but by an XSLT transformation.

https://betamasaheft.eu/Dillmann/lemma/Lb4b820d2caa64822aaffe29dc1ce0e06 is the html view

https://betamasaheft.eu/Dillmann/lemma/Lb4b820d2caa64822aaffe29dc1ce0e06.xml is the source data

Return to table of contents
Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/api/Dillmann/{id}/txt

return only the entry in txt as in original file (retransformed with xslt)

Click on link.

Pattern
Parameters
Example
Result:
/api/Dillmann/{id}/teientry

return only the entry in xml

Click on link.

/api/Dillmann/{id}/json

return only the entry in json by restxq


                

GET IIIF API Manifest

How to get available manifests for manuscripts or collections. Please for a description see the IIIF Prentation API. URIs of canvases and sequences are dereferncable. The collection request will also list available manifests linked to our records.

Return to table of contents
Pattern
/permanent/{$sha}/api/iiif/{$id}/manifest
Pattern
/iiif/collections
Pattern
/{$sha}/api/iiif/{$id}/canvas/p{$n}
Pattern
/api/iiif/{$id}/range/{$rangeId}
Pattern
/permanent/{$sha}/api/iiif/{$id}/sequence/normal
Pattern
/iiif/collection/{$institutionid}
Pattern
/iiif/{$id}/canvas/p{$n}
Pattern
/{$sha}/api/iiif/{$id}/sequence/normal
Pattern
/iiif/{$id}/manifest
Pattern
/iiif/{$id}/sequence/normal
Pattern
/{$sha}/api/iiif/{$id}/manifest
Pattern
/iiif/witnesses/{$workID}
Pattern
/permanent/{$sha}/api/iiif/{$id}/canvas/p{$n}
Pattern
/api/iiif/collection/{$institutionid}
Pattern
/api/iiif/{$id}/canvas/p{$n}
Pattern
/api/iiif/collections
Pattern
/iiif/{$id}/range/{$rangeId}
Pattern
/api/iiif/{$id}/sequence/normal
Pattern
/api/iiif/witnesses/{$workID}
Pattern
/api/iiif/{$id}/manifest

GET SHINE API

How to navigate the SHINE API (SHINE documentation).

Return to table of contents
Pattern
/api/sections/{$uuid}/content_units
Pattern
/shine/api/resources/{$uuid}/metadata
Pattern
/api/resources/{$uuid}/sections
Pattern
/api/collections/{$uuid}/resources
Pattern
/shine/api/collections
Pattern
/shine/api/sections/{$uuid}/content_units
Pattern
/api/resources/{$uuid}/metadata
Pattern
/api/collections
Pattern
/shine/api/resources/{$uuid}/sections
Pattern
/shine/api/collections/{$uuid}/resources

GET JSON-API

How to navigate the JSON API.

Return to table of contents
Pattern
/api/sections/{$uuid}/content_units
Pattern
/shine/api/resources/{$uuid}/metadata
Pattern
/api/resources/{$uuid}/sections
Pattern
/api/collections/{$uuid}/resources
Pattern
/shine/api/collections
Pattern
/shine/api/sections/{$uuid}/content_units
Pattern
/api/resources/{$uuid}/metadata
Pattern
/api/collections
Pattern
/shine/api/resources/{$uuid}/sections
Pattern
/shine/api/collections/{$uuid}/resources