Description
Book SynopsisAround 1900 the small Ethiopian community in Jerusalem found itself in a desperate struggle with the Copts over the Dayr al-Sultan monastery located on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre. Based on a profoundly researched, impassioned and multifaceted exploration of a forgotten manuscript, this book abandons the standard majority discourse and approaches the history of Jerusalem through the lens of a community typically considered marginal. It illuminates the political, religious and diplomatic affairs that exercised the city, and guides the reader on a fascinating journey from the Ethiopian highlands to the Holy Sepulchre, passing through the Ottoman palaces in Istanbul. Have a look inside the book
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Acknowledgments for the English Edition List of Figures Note on Transliteration and Dates Introduction: A Historical Emergency: The Paradoxical Posterity of a Failed Manuscript 1 A Sidestep 2 Three Readings 3 Microcosm, Macrocosm 1 Dayr al-Sultan: A Rooftop Monastery 1 A Monastery on a Roof 2 One Place, Two Memories 3 Histories and Research about the Monastery 4 The Limits of Previous Studies 2 An Enigmatic Unpublished Manuscript 1 The Archives of the Ethiopian Orthodox Community 2 An Unpublished Manuscript 3 A Cryptic Text 3 The Archaeology of a Militant Propaganda Text 1 A Text Based on Another Dated 1893 2 Sources: The Backbone of the Text 3 Adaptations, Additions and Interpretations 4 A Linguistically Challenged and Challenging Text 4 Conflicts and Protections: 1850–1903 1 Dayr al-Sultan: An Unending Local Conflict 2 A Community with No Legal Autonomy 3 Having Their Voices Heard in Istanbul 5 With Memory as His Only Weapon 1 A New Stage in the Ethiopian Claims 2 Making up for the Absence of Legal Documentation 3 Justifying the Absence of Legal Documentation 4 A Respond to the Coptic Arguments 6 The Reflection of an Ethiopia in Transformation 1 A Dearth of Written Ethiopian Sources 2 No Ethiopian Kings Concerned about Jerusalem? 3 A New Interest for Jerusalem 4 Differentiating Ethiopians from Copts 5 Presenting the Community as Homogeneous 7 The Ethiopians in a Global City 1 Rediscovering Jerusalem 2 Imperial Ethiopia 3 The Opening of an Ottoman City 4 Modernization of Local Administration 5 Protection and Involvement in Conflict over the Holy Sites 6 Acting and Evolving Depending on Others … 7 … And Yet Declaring Oneself Isolated from Others Conclusion: The Keys to Power: The Ethiopians at the Doors of the Sanctuary Amharic Text and English Translation of Walda Madhen Appendix 1: German Version of the Ethiopian Anonymous Text of 1893 Appendix 2: Letter Written by Samuel Gobat to James Howard Harris, Earl of Malmesbury, June 29, 1852 Appendix 3: Account of Giovanni Battista Albengo, 1893 Appendix 4: Short Chronology Sources and Bibliography Index
