Beyond Influence: The Connected Histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity

Project Information

BeInf

Grant agreement ID: 101044300

DOI

10.3030/101044300

EC signature date 1 June 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 31 August 2027

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 968 500,00

EU contribution

€ 1 968 500,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BeInf (Beyond Influence: The Connected Histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity)

Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2025-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The BeInf project interrogates the connected histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christians in their various complexities and nuances. It accomplishes this task through a series of five discrete, but complementary case studies addressing: 1. Aramaic loanwords in Ethiopic; 2. the so-called Nagran Episode, in which the sixth-century Aksumite ruler Kaleb intervened on behalf of Syriac Christians who were being persecuted in the Arabian peninsula; 3. the Ethiopic Abba Gärima Gospels, including especially their illumination programs; 4. the hagiography of the Nine Saints, who are alleged to have brought about a “second christianisation” of Aksum in the late fifth and early sixth centuries; 5. the Ethiopic reception of Syriac literature. Through these case studies, BeInf aims to chart an innovative path forward in moving beyond influence as the primary analytical category for analysing connections, contacts, exchanges, as well as the actors and cultural brokers responsible for them.

The project represents a systematic response to a long-standing debate in the field of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies on so-called Syriac influences on Ethiopic Christianity. This debate has its origins with two prominent Italian scholars from several generations ago: I. Guidi and especially C. Conti Rossini argued that Syriac Christians exerted a great deal of influence on Ethiopic Christianity during Late Antiquity as foreign missionaries, who fled the Chalcedonian Empire for Aksum, where, among other things, they introduced monasticism, translated the Bible into Ethiopic, and more broadly brought about a “second-christianisation”. The association of these alleged foreign missionaries with Syriac-speaking areas was based on a series of arguments, all of which have been challenged in subsequent scholarship. While some scholars have been persuaded by these challenges, others have continued to maintain the traditional view that Syriac Christians played a significant role in the development of Christianity in Aksum during Late Antiquity. The BeInf project provides a new analysis of the question of alleged Syriac influences on Ethiopic Christianity that seeks to establish the type and extent of contact and connection between the two.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work to date has focused primarily on the fifth case study: the Ethiopic reception of Syriac literature. Already at the application stage, this case study was identified as that of the largest magnitude and scope, and this preconception has been confirmed during the first years of the project. Among the vast amount of material, the project has focused so far on Ethiopic homilies attributed to major Syriac authors. Inventories are nearing completion for the most widely attested figures in Ethiopic: Aphrahat, Ephrem, Jacob of Serugh, Philoxenos, and Simeon the Stylite. These inventories provide for each text not only a full listing of the extant Ethiopic manuscript witnesses but also, when relevant, the precise identification of the ultimate Syriac source. In addition, particular attention is paid to the Arabic intermediaries, which have for the most part been neglected in previous scholarship.

Work on the other case studies is mostly slated for the second half of the project. Nevertheless, some results can already be reported. As part of the third case study, new research is in progress on the Ethiopic Abba Gärima Gospels, including the all-important question of their dating, which has long vexed scholars. In addition, preliminary results have been presented on a new reading of the hagiographies of the Nine Saints, as a historical source not for Late Antiquity but rather for the Medieval period, when the texts were written and promulgated.

In addition to these achievements, which were planned at the application stage, the BeInf project has pursued several unanticipated trajectories. A couple of examples will suffice to illustrate. First is a turn to Egypt. In trying to identify actual points of contact between Ethiopic and Syriac Christians, Egypt has emerged as a primary location. In Spring of 2024, two team members and a future team member carried out a research trip to Egypt, visiting various churches and monasteries in the Wadi al-Natrun, in Cairo, and along the Red Sea. The project can now leverage previously undocumented inscriptions and graffiti to establish that Ethiopic and Syriac Christians were at some of the same places at the same time—a crucial element, though until now entirely overlooked, in the connected histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christians. In a similar vein, the project has explored other places of direct contact between Ethiopic and Syriac Christians. A programmatic article that recently appeared, for instances, looks to a single line of Syriac written in an Ethiopic manuscript—evidence that has never been considered—to highlight the fact that Ethiopic and Syriac Christians were living together in Santo Stefano degli Abissini (or dei Mori), the well-known Ethiopic pilgrim hostel-cum-monastery, in Rome in the mid sixteenth century. (see https://hugoye.bethmardutho.org/article/hv27n1butts)

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Like many of the historical approaches allied with connected history, the BeInf project is committed to challenging the disciplinary boundaries that have dominated the field of humanities. It does so in several ways. The first is that BeInf adopts a multi-disciplinary approach that brings together methods traditionally categorized as distinct and disconnected, from philology to art history and from linguistics to history. By adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, BeInf aims to provide a more nuanced and textured account of the connected histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christians. A second way in which BeInf challenges traditional disciplinary boundaries is by rejecting area studies. Many fields that study the ancient world continue to be isolated and siloed in problematic ways, which often reflect their origins and their development but which make little sense when viewed critically anew. The field of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies is no exception. Fortunately, the seismic shifts that are presently affecting academia, and the humanities in particular, challenge the isolationist tendencies of many fields. In Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies, the results of such changes can be seen in the increasing number of recent publications that draw connections between the Horn of Africa and medieval Europe. This body of research opens an entirely new point of inquiry, which is not only intrinsically interesting in its own right but is crucial for destabilizing the traditional Eurocentric focus of the field of Medieval Studies. As important as this new body of research is, however, the more immediate geographic, cultural, and historical context of Ethiopia and Eritrea should not continue to be neglected. It is this more-immediate context on which BeInf focuses in exploring the connected histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christians. In doing so, BeInf further destabilizes the Eurocentric focus of the humanities, marking a third way in which BeInf challenges traditional disciplinary boundaries. In addition to the humanities more broadly, the field of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies particularly stands to benefit from these challenges to traditional disciplinary boundaries that have relegated Ethiopia and Eritrea to the margins for too long.

Eight of the Nine Saints (cupola in a church in Ethiopia)