Zera Yacob (philosopher)
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Zera Yacob (; ; 28 August 1600 – 1693) was an Ethiopian
philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
best known for his treatise, '' Hatata'' ("The Inquiry"), which explores themes of reason,
morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...
, and religious tolerance. Forced into exile, he wrote ''Hatata'' while living in a cave, where he reflected on questions of
faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...
,
ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
, and the nature of truth. Yacob was educated in the 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, Abba Mikael translated and adapted the Arabic ''Book of the Wise Philosophers'', a collection of sayings from the early Greek
Pre-Socratics Pre-Socratic philosophy, also known as early Greek philosophy, is ancient Greek philosophy before Socrates. Pre-Socratic philosophers were mostly interested in cosmology, the beginning and the substance of the universe, but the inquiries of the ...
,
Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born  BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
, and
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
via the
neo-Platonic Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common id ...
dialogues, also influenced by
Arab philosophy Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—''falsafa'' (), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, mathematics, and p ...
and the Ethiopian discussions. Zera Yacob's ''Inquiry'' goes further than these former texts, as he argues for following one's natural reasoning instead of believing what one is told by others. He was a contemporary of the female activist Walatta Petros, whose biography was written in 1672.


Biography

Yacob was born into a farmer family near
Aksum Axum, also spelled Aksum (), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire. Axum is located in the Central Zone of the Tigray Regi ...
in northern Ethiopia, the former capital of Ethiopia under the ancient
Kingdom of Aksum The Kingdom of Aksum, or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom in East Africa and South Arabia from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, based in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, and spanning present-day Djibouti and Sudan. Emerging ...
. Yacob's name means "The Seed of Jacob" ("Zar" is the
Geʽez Geez ( or ; , and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originates from what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea. Today, Geez is used as the main liturgical langu ...
word for "seed"). Although his father was poor, he supported Yacob's attendance of traditional schools, where he became acquainted with the Psalms of
David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
and educated in the
Ethiopian Orthodox The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...
Christian faith. He was denounced before Emperor
Susenyos I 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 '' ...
(r. 1607–1632), who had turned to the
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
faith and ordered his subjects to follow his own example. Refusing to adopt the Catholic faith, Yacob fled into exile with some
gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
and the Book of
Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...
. On the road to
Shewa Shewa (; ; Somali: Shawa; , ), formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa, is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is located at it ...
in the south, he found a cave at the foot of the
Tekezé River The Tekezé River (; , originally meaning "river" in Ge’ez; , also spelled Takkaze; ), is a major river in Ethiopia. For part of its course it forms a section of the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The river is also known as the Seti ...
and lived in it as a hermit for two years, praying and developing his philosophy. He wrote of his experience, "I have learnt more while living alone in a cave than when I was living with scholars. What I wrote in this book is very little; but in my cave I have meditated on many other such things." After the death of the Emperor, Susenyos's son Fasilides (r. 1632–1667), a firm adherent of the Ethiopian
Oriental Orthodox Church The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 50 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches adhere to the Nicene Christian tradition. Oriental Orthodoxy is ...
, took power, expelling the Jesuits, and extirpated the
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
faith in his kingdom in 1633. Yacob left his cave and settled in
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 ...
. He found a patron, a rich merchant named Habta Egziabher (known as Habtu), and married a maid of the family. He refused to live as a monk and stated that "the law of Christians which propounds the superiority of monastic life over marriage is false and can’t come from God." However, he also rejected polygamy because "the law of creation orders one man to marry one woman." Yacob became the teacher of Habtu's two sons, and at the request of his patron's son
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 ...
, Yacob wrote his famous 1668 treatise investigating the light of reason. Little is known of Yacob's later life. However, it is believed that he lived a fulfilled family life in Emfraz, and remained there for the next 25 years. He died there in 1693. Yacob's year of death was recorded by Walda Heywat in an annotation to the ''Treatise''.


Philosophical work

Yacob is most noted for this
ethical Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied e ...
philosophy surrounding the principle of harmony. He proposed that an action's
morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...
is decided by whether it advances or degrades overall harmony in the world. While he did believe in a deity, whom he referred to as God, he rejected any set of particular religious beliefs. Rather than deriving beliefs from any organized religion, Yacob sought the truth in observing the natural world. In '' Hatata'', Yacob applied the idea of a
first cause The unmoved mover () or prime mover () is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary Causality (physics), cause (or first uncaused cause) or "Motion (physics), mover" of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the moves oth ...
to produce a proof for the
existence of God The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and theology. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the exis ...
, thus proposing a
cosmological argument In the philosophy of religion, a cosmological argument is an argument for the existence of God based upon observational and factual statements concerning the universe (or some general category of its natural contents) typically in the context of ...
in chapter 3 of ''Hatata'': "If I say that my father and my mother created me, then I must search for the creator of my parents and of the parents of my parents until they arrive at the first who were not created as we rebut who came into this world in some other way without being generated." However, the knowability of God does not depend on human intellect, but "Our soul has the power of having the concept of God and of seeing him mentally. God did not give this power purposelessly; as he gave the power, so did he give the
reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...
." He argued too against discrimination, predating
John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...
by decades, in chapter 6 of ''Hatata'', starting the chapter with: "All men are equal in the presence of God; and all are intelligent since they are his creatures; he did not assign one people for life, another for death, one for mercy, another for judgment. Our reason teaches us that this sort of discrimination cannot exist." In chapter 5 of ''Hatata'', he criticizes slavery saying, "what the Gospel says on this subject cannot come from God. Likewise, the Mohammedans said that it is right to go and buy a man as if he were an animal. But with our intelligence, we understand that this Mohammedan law cannot come from the creator of man who made us equal, like brothers, so that we call our creator our father." At the time, slavery was widely practiced in Ethiopia.


Authorship controversy

The authorship of the ''Hatata'' was challenged by Carlo Conti Rossini in 1920, who claimed it was forged by father Giusto da Urbino, an Italian scholar who worked in Ethiopia. The arguments are extrinsic, based on the manuscripts' recent age, his knowledge of Ethiopic language and culture, the information on Islam also being known by Urbino, and the fact that he discovered the two extant manuscripts. In 1934, Eugen Mittwoch put forward linguistic arguments for the inauthentic nature of the ''Hatata'', and scholarly interest in the work waned. Amsalu Aklilu and Ato Alemayyehu Moges argued for the authenticity of the work, based on its nonreligious contents, sentence structure, and the particularity of the
Geʽez Geez ( or ; , and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originates from what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea. Today, Geez is used as the main liturgical langu ...
used. Claude Sumner wrote in favor of the ''Inquiry'''s authenticity in 1976 with statistical evidence showing the duality of authors in their differing Biblical quotations, using five newly found letters of Urbino in Rome. Sumner also argued that Urbino had worse knowledge of Geʽez than originally presented, and that he did not share the ideas of the ''Hatata'' at the time he was supposed to have written it.


See also

*
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 ...
, his successor


References


Further reading

* Teodros Kiros, "Zera Yacob and Traditional Ethiopian Philosophy," in Wiredu and Abraham, eds., ''A Companion to African Philosophy'', 2004. * Enno Littmann
''Philosophi Abessini. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Vol. 18, Scriptores Aethiopici''
Presses Républicaines, 1904. Contains the Ge'ez text of Zera Yacob's treatise. * Claude Sumner, ''Ethiopian Philosophy, vol. II: The Treatise of Zara Yaecob and Walda Hewat: Text and Authorship'', Commercial Printing Press, 1976. * Claude Sumner, ''Ethiopian Philosophy, vol. III: The Treatise of Zara Yaecob and Walda Hewat: An Analysis'', Commercial Printing Press, 1978. * Claude Sumner, "The Light and the Shadow: Zera Yacob and Walda Heywat: Two Ethiopian Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century," in Wiredu and Abraham, eds., ''A Companion to African Philosophy'', 2004.


External links

* Brendan Ritchie
"Ethiopian Philosophy: A Brief Introduction with Bibliography and Selections"
* Dag Herbjørnsrud
"The African Enlightenment," AEON, 13 December 2017

Ethiopian Philosophy
- A blog with commentary on Zera Yacob's treatise.
Zera Yacob's Treatise in English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yacob, Zara 1600 births 1693 deaths 17th-century Ethiopian people 17th-century philosophers History of religion in Ethiopia Ethiopian writers Ethiopian philosophers Enlightenment philosophers People from Axum Deist philosophers