ʾAksum Ṣǝyon
Eugenia Sokolinski
Names
አክሱም፡ ጽዮን፡↗ normalized: ʾAksum Ṣǝyon↗ alt: ማርያም፡ ጽዮን፡↗ normalized: Māryām Ṣǝyon↗ Mary of Zion↗ alt: ገበዘ፡ ጽዮን፡↗ normalized: Gabaza Ṣǝyon↗ Māryām Ṣǝyon↗
አክሱም፡ ጽዮን፡gez
alt: ማርያም፡ ጽዮን፡gez
alt: ገበዘ፡ ጽዮን፡gez
General information
description: The Maṣḥafa ʾAksum describes ʾAksum Ṣǝyon in technical terms while Francisco Alvares↗ describes the old church as "very large; it has five aisles of good width and great length, vaulted above, and all the vaults closed, the ceiling and sides all painted. Below, the body of the church is well worked with handsome cut stone; it has seven chapels, all with their backs to the east, and their altars well ornamented. It has a choir after our fashion, except that it is low, and they reach the vaulted roof with their heads; and the choir is also over the vault, and they do not use it." Following the church reconstruction by Śarṣa Dǝngǝl↗ , it is described by the sources as presenting a new smaller church built into the remains and walls of a larger older church. The local tradition maintains that the Ark of the Covenant is in the church of ʾAksum Ṣǝyon.
History
history: The church of ʾAksum Ṣǝyon has a long and complex history of destructions and reconstructions with a number of legendary aspects. It has a key role in Ethiopia's cultural heritage and is referred to in a number of sources: Maṣḥafa ʾAksum, Francisco Alvares↗ 's account (ca. 1520 ), Gadla Libānos (1400 ), Iter de Venetiis ad Indiam (1400 ), etc. Although the remains of ancient structures were identified under or embedded in today's church, the early history of this church is hard to reconstruct and involved legendary figures such as ʾAbrǝhā and ʾAṣbǝḥā↗ and queen role: title ʾƎsāto↗ . Gadla Libānos refers that ʾaṣe role: title Dāwit II↗ ordered the church restored in 1406 . The possessions of the church grew significantly over time and Maṣḥafa ʾAksum records a number of land grants to the church. ʾAksum Ṣǝyon was destroyed in 1535 by ʾAḥmad b. ʾIbrāhīm al-Ġāzī↗ and then rebuilt by ʾaṣe role: title Śarṣa Dǝngǝl↗ in the second half of the 16th cent. According to a Jesuit annual letter, it was burned down by the Oromo↗ in 1611 but it was probably quickly restored as the church was visited and described by Manoel de Almeida↗ , Tomás Barreto↗ and Manoel Barradas↗ in the 1620s - early 1630s. The church was restored in 1655 by ʾaṣe role: title Fāsiladas↗ and again in 1749-50 by ʾaṣe role: title ʾIyāsu II↗ . Following this last restoration the church has remained the same, except for some 19th-20th cent. alterations, while the surrounding buildings have experienced radical changes including the new round church of Māryām Ṣǝyon↗ built by ʾaṣe role: title Ḫāyla Śǝllāse I↗ next to the old one.
Secondary Bibliography
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Munro-Hay, S. 2003. ‘Aksum Ṣǝyon’, in S. Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, I (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), 183b–185a.
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Publication Statement
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.
Encoding Description
Encoded according to the Beta maṣāḥǝft Guidelines. These Guidelines detail the TEI format ruled by the Beta maṣāḥǝft Schema. The present TEI file is enriched with an Xquery transformation taking advantage of the exist-db database instance where the data is stored and of the many external resources to which this data points to.
Definitions of prefixes used.
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t:country | ኢትዮጵያ |
regional state | Bǝḥerāwi Kǝllǝlāwi Mangǝśti Tǝgrāy |
province | Tǝgre |
zone | Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy |
town | ʾAksum |
Coordinates | 14.1305 38.7195 |
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 188
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 189
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 200
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, Fiaccadori 2007
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 210
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 204
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 185bis and 270bis
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 271 and 190
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 211
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 207
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 212
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 185 and 270
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 208
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 209
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 191
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 193
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 187
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 186
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 192
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 202
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 203
- Māʾkalāy Tǝgrāy, ʾAksum Ṣǝyon, RIÉ 201
Use the tag BetMas:INS0344AksumS in your public hypothes.is annotations which refer to this entity.
Suggested Citation of this record
To cite a precise version, please, click on load permalinks and to the desired version (see documentation on permalinks), then import the metadata or copy the below, with the correct link.
Eugenia Sokolinski, Alessandro Bausi, Dorothea Reule, ʻʾAksum Ṣǝyonʼ, in Alessandro Bausi, ed., Die Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: Eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung / Beta maṣāḥǝft (Last Modified: 2018-07-20) https://betamasaheft.eu/institutions/INS0344AksumS [Accessed: 2024-05-18]
Revisions of the data
- Dorothea Reule Corrected transcription on 20.7.2018
- Eugenia Sokolinski created on 31.1.2017
Attributions of the contents
Alessandro Bausi, general editor
Eugenia Sokolinski, editor
Dorothea Reule, contributor