Introduction by the Mu˙ammadans in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, many churches and their libraries of manuscripts perished. We may, however, be sure that the Solomonic kings, who settled in the province of Shoa during the period of the Zâguê domination, managed to preserve chronological lists and other historical documents that contained the Annals of their predecessors. The second part of the Colophon mentions Abu ’l-‘Izz and Abu ‘l-Faraj as being concerned with translating the book into Arabic, and makes one Isaac (?), who was apparently the Ethiopian translator, ask why they did not translate it into Ethiopic. In answer to this question he says that the Këbra Nagast appeared during the period of the Zâguê rule, when it is obvious that the publication of any work that supported the claims of the Solomonic kings would meet with a very unfavourable reception, and cause the death of its editors and translators. Therefore it is fairly certain that the Këbra Nagast existed in Arabic in some form during the three and a half centuries of the Zâguê rule, and that no attempt was made to multiply copies of it in Ethiopic until the restoration of the line of Solomonic kings in the days of Yëkûnô ≤Amlâk (A.D. 1270–1285). The Ethiopic work as we know it now is probably in much the same state as it was in the days of Gabra Mas˚al. (≤Amda ®ëyôn) in the first half of the fourteenth century of our era. Of Isaac we unfortunately know nothing, but there seem to be no good grounds for attributing the complete authorship of the Këbra Nagast to him. Yet he was evidently not merely a scribe or copyist, and when he speaks of the greatness of the toil which he undertook for the sake of the glory of the heavenly Zion, and Ethiopia and her king, he seems to suggest that he was the general redactor or editor who directed the work of his devoted companions Yamharana-’ab, ©ezbaKrestôs, Andrew, Philip, and Ma˙ârî-≤ab.
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