Sat Jan 11 02:44:54 1997

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Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 09:40:05 +0200
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From: Margaret Hayon 
Subject: Introduction - Ethiopic texts
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I would like to introduce myself to this list.

I am doing research on the religious traditions of the Ethiopian Jews (Beta
Israel). 
I live in Israel, and am in close contact with priests and elders of this
community; 
they have allowed me to photograph various manuscripts in their possession.
 
I am now working on one of these manuscripts, known as "Baqadami gabra
Egziabher" ["In the beginning God created"]: I am translating it from Ge`ez,
comparing it with the only other two versions I've found (both in Tel Aviv
University library, Rare Books room; part of the Faitlovitch Collection).
The book begins with an Ethiopic version of Genesis 1, which I am comparing
with J.Oscar Boyd's critical edition "The Octateuch in Ethiopic".  Most of
the book, however, is not Biblical but consists of prayers of various types:
the two dominant themes are the 6 days of Creation; and personal repentance
and petition for forgiveness and purification.   I am trying to get more
information from the priests about the liturgical use of these prayers: they
appear to be connected to the Beta Israel Sabbath liturgy (they have a
7-Sabbath liturgical cycle). There are also some midrash-type passages about
Moses and God.

I am an external MPhil/PhD student of London University: my advisor there is
Dr David Appleyard, Head of the Department of Africa at S.O.A.S.   I am also
in contact with Prof. Gideon Goldenberg of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

I would like to know if there are any other Ge`ez scholars on this list.
Are there scholars of other disciplines who might be interested in helping
me to locate sources/parallels of selected portions of this text?



Margaret Hayon
49 Raanan Street,
Haifa 34385, Israel
e-mail address:  margaret@actcom.co.il

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