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Ethiopian Philosophy
Ethiopian philosophy or Abyssinian philosophy is the philosophical corpus of the territories of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. Besides via oral tradition, it was preserved early in written form through Ge'ez manuscripts. This philosophy occupies a unique position within African philosophy. Beginnings of Ethiopian philosophy The character of Ethiopian philosophy is determined by the particular conditions of evolution of the Ethiopian culture. Thus, Ethiopian philosophy arises from the confluence of Greek and Patristic philosophy with traditional Ethiopian modes of thought. Because of the early isolation from its sources of Christian spirituality – Byzantium and Alexandria – Ethiopia received some of its philosophical heritage through Arabic versions. The sapiential literature developed under these circumstances is the result of a twofold effort of creative assimilation: on one side, of a tuning of Orthodoxy to traditional modes of thought (never eradicated), and vice vers ...
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Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia covers a land area of . , it has around 128 million inhabitants, making it the List of countries and dependencies by population, thirteenth-most populous country in the world, the List of African countries by population, second-most populous in Africa after Nigeria, and the most populous landlocked country on Earth. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African Plate, African and Somali Plate, Somali tectonic plates. Early modern human, Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out for the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithi ...
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Susenyos Of Ethiopia
Susenyos I ( ; –1575 – 17 September 1632), also known as Susenyos the Catholic, was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1607 to 1632, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. His throne names were Seltan Sagad and Malak Sagad III. He was the son of '' Abeto'' Fasil, as well as the grandson of ''Abeto'' Yakob and the great-grandson of Dawit II. As a result, while some authorities list Susenyos as a member of the Solomonic dynasty, others consider him—rather than his son, Fasilides—as the founder of the Gondar line of the dynasty (which is, however, ultimately a subset of the Solomonic dynasty). The life of Susenyos is known through his chronicle, written by several official writers (''sehafe te’ezaz''). The Jesuits, who were closely associated with Susenyos’s reign, also left numerous documents on their mission in Ethiopia. Manuel de Almeida, a Portuguese Jesuit who lived in Ethiopia during Susenyos reign, described the emperor as "tall with the features of a man of quality ...
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Society Of Ethiopia
A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societies are characterized by patterns of relationships ( social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. Human social structures are complex and highly cooperative, featuring the specialization of labor via social roles. Societies construct roles and other patterns of behavior by deeming certain actions or concepts acceptable or unacceptable—these expectations around behavior within a given society are known as societal norms. So far as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would otherwise be difficult on an individual basis. Societies vary based on ...
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Philosophical Schools And Traditions
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on its methods and assumptions. Historically, many of the individual sciences, such as physics and psychology, formed part of philosophy. However, they are considered separate academic disciplines in the modern sense of the term. Influential traditions in the history of philosophy include Western, Arabic–Persian, Indian, and Chinese philosophy. Western philosophy originated in Ancient Greece and covers a wide area of philosophical subfields. A central topic in Arabic–Persian philosophy is the relation between reason and revelation. Indian philosophy combines the spiritual problem of how to reach enlightenment with the exploration of the nature of reality and the ways of arriving at knowledge. Chinese philosophy focuses principally on ...
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Culture Of Ethiopia
The culture of Ethiopia is diverse and generally structured along ethnolinguistic lines. The country's Afro-Asiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic-speaking majority adhere to an amalgamation of traditions that were developed independently and through interaction with neighboring and far away civilizations, including other parts of Northeast Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and Italy. By contrast, the nation's Nilotic peoples, Nilotic communities and other ethnolinguistic minorities tend to practice customs more closely linked with South Sudan or the African Great Lakes region. Music The music of Ethiopia is extremely diverse, with each of the country's ethnic groups being associated with their own sounds. Some forms of traditional music are strongly influenced by folk music from elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, especially Somalia. In southeastern Ethiopia, in Wollo Oromo people, Wollo, a Muslim musical form called ''Menzuma, manzuma'' developed in 1907. Sung in Amharic language, ...
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Claude Sumner
Claude Sumner, SJ (1919–2012) was a Canadian professor of philosophy who worked at Addis Ababa University from 1953. He was best known for his work on Zera Yacob. Sumner died on June 24, 2012, in Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ..., Canada, at the age of 92. Bibliography * ''The Philosophy of Man, Vol. I: From the Upanisads to the British Empiricists'', University College Press, 1973. * ''The Philosophy of Man, Vol. II: From Kant to the Situation in 1963'', Central Printing Press, 1974. * ''Ethiopian Philosophy, vol. I: The Book of the Wise Philosophers'', Commercial Printing Press, 1974. * ''Ethiopian Philosophy, vol. II: The Treatise of Zara Yaecob and Walda Hewat: Text and Authorship'', Commercial Printing Press, 1976. * ''Ethiopian Philosophy, vol. II ...
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Enno Littmann
Ludwig Richard Enno Littmann (16 September 1875, Oldenburg – 4 May 1958, Tübingen) was a German orientalist. In 1906, he succeeded Theodor Nöldeke as chair of Oriental languages at the University of Strasbourg. Later on, he served as a professor of Oriental languages at the Universities of Göttingen (1914–16), Bonn (1918–21) and Tübingen (1921–49). In 1901, he successfully deciphered the Safaitic script. He went on to deciphere and annotate Palmyrene, Nabataean and Syriac inscriptions as well as historical texts of ancient Ethiopian monuments. In 1905 he stayed among the Tigre people in Eritrea, and during the following year, directed the German Aksum-Expedition in Ethiopia.Littmann, Enno
@ NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie
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Ethiopian Calendar
The Ethiopian calendar (; ; ), or Geʽez calendar (Geʽez: ; Tigrinya: , ) is the official state civil calendar of Ethiopia and serves as an unofficial customary cultural calendar in Eritrea, and among Ethiopians and Eritreans in the diaspora. It is also an ecclesiastical calendar for Ethiopian Christians and Eritrean Christians belonging to the Orthodox Tewahedo Churches ( Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church), Eastern Catholic Churches ( Eritrean Catholic Church and Ethiopian Catholic Church), and Protestant Christian P'ent'ay (Ethiopian-Eritrean Evangelical) Churches. The Ethiopian calendar is a solar calendar that has much in common with the Coptic calendar of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Coptic Catholic Church, but like the Julian calendar, it adds a leap day every four years without exception, and begins the year on 11 or 12th of September in the Gregorian calendar (from 1900 to 2099). A gap of seven to ei ...
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Walda Heywat
Walda Heywat (Amharic: ወልደ ሕይወት; 1633–1710), also called Mitku, was an Ethiopian philosopher. He was the beloved disciple of Zara Yacob, who wrote a well regarded work on the nature of truth and reason. Heywat took his mentor’s work and expanded upon it, addressing issues encountered by Ethiopians of that time. Biography Walda Heywat was one of the sons of Habtu, a rich Ethiopian merchant from Emfraz, and the student of Zera Yacob, whose work he continued in his ''Treatise of Walda Heywat'', written in Geʽez. Walda Heywat was the son of Habta Egziabher (called Habtu), a friend of Zera Yacob in the town of Emfraz Enfraz or Infraz (), also called ''Guba'e'' (), or ''Guzara'' () is a historic town and district in northern Ethiopia. Located in the mountainous area overlooking the northeast shore of Lake Tana in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, it ..., where Zera Yacob spent the second part of his life. Zera Yacob was the teacher of the sons of Habtu ...
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Hatata
''Hatata'' (; Geʽez: ሐተታ ''ḥätäta'' "inquiry") is a Geʽez term describing an investigation or inquiry. The hatatas are two 17th century ethical and rational philosophical treatises from present-day Ethiopia: One hatata is written by the Abyssinian philosopher Zara Yaqob (Zär'a Ya'eqob/Zera Yacob, in his text also named Wärqe, 1600–1693), supposedly in 1668. The other hatata is written by his patron's son, Walda Heywat (Wäldä Hewat) some years later, in 1693 or later. Especially Zera Yacob's inquiry has been compared by scholars to Descartes'. But while Zera Yacob was critical towards all religions, including his "own" Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Descartes followed a more traditional religious perspective: "A major philosophical difference is that the Catholic Descartes explicitly denounced 'infidels' and atheists, whom he called 'more arrogant than learned' in his ''Meditations on First Philosophy'' (1641)." In late 2023, De Gruyter published the firs ...
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Zera Yacob (philosopher)
Zera Yacob (; ; 28 August 1600 – 1693) was an Ethiopian Philosophy, philosopher best known for his treatise, ''Hatata'' ("The Inquiry"), which explores themes of reason, morality, and religious tolerance. Forced into exile, he wrote ''Hatata'' while living in a cave, where he reflected on questions of faith, ethics, and the nature of truth. Yacob was educated in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Christian tradition but developed a distinct philosophical approach that emphasized rational inquiry over religious dogma. For centuries, Geʽez texts had been written in Ethiopia. Around 1510, Michael the Deacon, Abba Mikael translated and adapted the Arabic ''Book of the Wise Philosophers'', a collection of sayings from the early Greek Pre-Socratic philosophy, Pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle via the Neoplatonism, neo-Platonic dialogues, also influenced by Arab philosophy and the Ethiopian discussions. Zera Yacob's ''Inquiry'' goes further than these former ...
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Physiologus
The ''Physiologus'' () is a didactic Christian text written or compiled in Greek by an unknown author in Alexandria. Its composition has been traditionally dated to the 2nd century AD by readers who saw parallels with writings of Clement of Alexandria, who is asserted to have known the text, though Alan Scott has made a case for a date at the end of the 3rd or in the 4th century. The ''Physiologus'' consists of descriptions of animals, birds, and fantastic creatures, sometimes stones and plants, provided with moral content. Each animal is described, and an anecdote follows, from which the moral and symbolic qualities of the animal are derived. Manuscripts are often, but not always, given illustrations, often lavish. The book was translated into Armenian in 5th century, into Latin by the early 6th century or possibly even by the mid-4th century and into Ethiopic and Syriac, then into many European and Middle-Eastern languages, and many illuminated manuscript copies such as the ...
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