Everyone in Egypt, even
if ignorant and does not know how to read, talked about the crisis of the
Renaissance dam in Ethiopia or Abyssinia as some prefer to call… everyone turned into an expert
in geography, geology, soil, earthquakes and rain flooding… It even happened that a
high-level meeting was conducted at the presidency palace, atop of that meeting
was then-president Muhammed Mursi… and some political figures played the
character of expert generals and started talking about waging a war, launching
a sudden attack, and stirring ethnic and racist unrest in Ethiopia… the meeting
was supposed to be secret… however, cameras were running and microphones were
recording and the meeting was live broadcasted… it was a real scandal that
severely affected the two countries’ relations.
Talking seriously, if we
asked a random group of those intellectuals… then another group of people about
how well they do know Ethiopia; its location, geo-political, ethno, and
cultural composition, historical roots, arts and sensitive issues; meaning weak
points the Ethiopians prefer no one should interfere in or underestimate…etc…
we would find that no one actually knows anything about all this except for a
specialized or expert in the Ethiopian civilization who knows well about
Ethiopia and the African Horn.
As to me, I do not claim
I know well about what I mentioned… although I am interested in the African
civilizations in general and those of the River Nile basin countries in
specific… and so, I did not hesitate to visit Ethiopia and discuss some of the
Ethiopian politicians and intellectuals… I also attended the massive
celebration of Saint George and sang the Christian hymns… moreover; I gave a
word about Christianity in Egypt and its extension in Abyssinia.
When I had the book of “the
greatness of Kings… old Abyssinia texts” after my friend Dr. Mohsen Youssef gave me
part of his library, I realized I am ignorant regarding the Ethiopian history and
the role of myth in it… I also lack understanding the cultural composition and
historical and legends’ effects the Ethiopians have… I also realized that I am
not well acquainted of an aspect of the greatness and uniqueness in Egypt… and
how the soft power of our country greatly exceeds what we think… as I knew from
the book introduction that it is translated from the old Abyssinia language known as Ge'ez language.
This language, as
written by Professor Dr. Muahmmed Khalifa Hassan in the introduction: “is the
old Semitic language in Abyssinia and has strong connections to the Arabic
language… also, it has a strong connection to Sheba Arab script language as the
ancient Yemeni alphabet – south Arab script was written in – was transferred to
Abyssinia and was mainly used in Abyssinia writing… Ge’ez language is now the
language of the Ethiopian church… it is no longer a living language as Amharic
language has replaced it since the 13 calendar century… Ge’ez language
continued as the language of the Ethiopian church and of the literature and
historic writings that have an Ethiopian religious theme.
I knew from Dr. Hassan’s
introduction that we have a specialization in this language; Ge’ez, in the
faculty of arts at Cairo University and that the university has internationally-recognized
experts in this language… most important of them is Professor Dr. Khalil Yahia
Nami, Professor Dr. Murad Kamel and Professor Dr. Abdel-Samie’ Muhammed Ahmed…
followed them another generation, most notable of them are Professor Dr.
Muahmmed Khalifa Hassan and Professor Dr. Omar Saber Abdel-Galil… as to the
third generation, we have Dr. Magdi Abdel-Razaq; the book translator… what really
makes you feel proud is that the department of eastern languages at Cairo
University is the only one that encompasses such specialization on the
Egyptian, Arab and international levels… as experts in the old Abyssinia
language in the West are now very few and scattered in their universities.
Moreover; this book “Kebra
Nagast” or “the greatness of Kings”, is the main source through which the
Abyssinia history philosophy was based… and it has two levels of importance…
the first is the explaining level for the history of Abyssinia as to framing it
within a specific Christian theological format… the second is the historical
documentation level… as this book documents for the history of Abyssinia within
the Christian theology… this history that starts at the beginning of creation and
ends at the birth of Christianity.
This book is considered
a religious one in the theological history of Christianity… this religious
aspect was the reason behind why the theological accounts were spread into
Abyssinia history and how they combined with historical accounts… at this
point, Dr. Hassan hints to the similarity between Abyssinia history and that of
the Israelites… as many historical
events turned into parts of religion… and where Abyssinia history excerpted
many myths of the Israelites’ history and gave it an Abyssinia interpretation…
and so, the Ethiopian or Abyssinia history became sacred just like the Israeli
history.
We shall continue talking
about other texts of the book later.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This
article was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on December 7, 2016.
To
see the original article, go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal #Egypt #Ethiopia #Abyssinia #history
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