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✖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).
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ʾAksum Ṣǝyon

Eugenia Sokolinski

Work in Progress
https://betamasaheft.eu/INS0344AksumS
Institution
Places IndexGeneralDescriptionMap

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


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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

  • Munro-Hay, S. 2003. ‘Aksum Ṣǝyon’, in S. Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, I (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003), 183b–185a.
    ZoteroOther citations

For a table of all relations from and to this record, please go to the Relations view. In the Relations boxes on the right of this page, you can also find all available relations grouped by name.

Keywords

churchdabr

    Publication Statement

    authority
    Hiob-Ludolf-Zentrum für Äthiopistik
    publisher
    Die Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: Eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung / Beta maṣāḥǝft
    pubPlace
    Hamburg
    availability

    This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.

    date
    type=expanded
    17.9.2024 at 12:23:44
    date
    type=lastModified
    20.7.2018
    idno
    type=collection
    institutions
    idno
    type=url
    https://betamasaheft.eu/institutions/INS0344AksumS/main
    idno
    type=URI
    https://betamasaheft.eu/INS0344AksumS
    idno
    type=filename
    INS0344AksumS.xml
    idno
    type=ID
    INS0344AksumS
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Suggested citation of this record

Eugenia Sokolinski, Dorothea Reule, ʻʾAksum Ṣǝyonʼ, in Die Schriftkultur des christlichen Äthiopiens und Eritreas: Eine multimediale Forschungsumgebung / Beta maṣāḥǝft (Last Modified: 2018-07-20) https://betamasaheft.eu/institutions/INS0344AksumS [Accessed: 2024-11-30]

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Revision history

  • Dorothea Reule Corrected transcription on 20.7.2018
  • Eugenia Sokolinski created on 31.1.2017
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Attribution of the content

Alessandro Bausi, general editor

Eugenia Sokolinski, editor

Dorothea Reule, contributor

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.