Hundert/Ethiopian Studies in the 20Th Century

0993-8_BIOR_2008/1-2_01 21-04-2008 14:39 Pagina 136 267 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXV N° 1-2, januari-april 2008 268 serious, because it eliminates the school Marcel Cohen directly or indirectly created,2) and above all the formida- ble cultural network in which it was inserted. I would like to mention here not only Ethiopicists like Wolf Leslau, Roger Schneider, Stefan Strelcyn, Joseph Tubiana, and Bernard Velat, but also Semitists like David Cohen, Ara- bists like Gérard Troupeau, and Islamicists like Maxime Rodinson. Nor would I like to leave unmentioned the aston- ishing copenetration between Ethiopian studies and national French anthropology, concretized in studies like those of Debora Lifchitz3) or of the same Strelcyn, who began the most important part of his career with the fourth volume of SEMITICA the Catalogue of the Griaule collection.4) This type of studies was, if one may say so, symbolized by the person of Marcel Griaule, editor of Ethiopian texts connected with VOIGT, R. (Ed.) — Die äthiopischen Studien im 20. Jahr- magic,5) and at the same time head of the Mission Dakar- hundert/Ethiopian studies in the 20th century. Akten der Djibouti of the years 1931-1933. This Mission brought rich internationalen äthiopischen Tagung Berlin 22. bis 24. material to the in Paris, and it is well Juli 2000. (Semitica et Semitohamitica Berolinensia, 2). Musée de l’Homme known that some texts collected by that Mission in Gondar Shaker Verlag GmbH, Aachen, 2003. (21 cm, 184). have been the object of the magnificent study by Rodinson ISBN 3-8322-2269-3. ISSN 1616-525X. / 35,80 paper- on magic, medicine, and the s in Gondar.6) Then there back. zar is also a writer like Michel Leiris who has to be mentioned A tiny booklet on the history of Ethiopian studies in the in this connection.7) I do believe that never as in this case twentieth century? Professor Voigt has succeeded in putting have Ethiopian studies played a so important role in the cul- all the essential for a most useful survey of a field which is tural development of a country. of crucial importance for those interested in Semitic, Chris- But there is another serious lacuna, this time due to an tian Oriental, and African studies, together. The volume unhappy valuation, which greatly diminishes the value of contains a Vorwort by Voigt (pp. 7-10) and the following the volume: the lack of any space dedicated to philology. articles: in the Section Sprachwissenschaft und Philologie This in turn derives from the very conception and definition “Ethiopian studies in the United Kingdom in the 20th Cen- of what philology is. In this volume, organized and set up tury” (pp. 13-30) by David Appleyard; “The Ethiopian lan- by linguists, philology goes together with linguistics, as they guage area: An overview of studies published in Central were more or less the same thing (or, at most, as the first and Eastern Europe” (pp. 31-54) by Václav Blazek; was the preparatory and documentary phase of the second). “Ethiopian studies in Israel” (pp. 55-70) by Gideon Gold- This opinion is very widespread, and one can really find a enberg; “Italian Ethiopian studies in the 20th Century” (pp. lot of papers and books which tirelessly treat the problem 71-102) by Marcello Lamberti; “Äthiopistik in Berlin: Das of “philology and linguistics” from this point of view.8) Wirken von Eugen Mittwoch und Aläqa Tayyä” (pp. 103- The entire matter is surely not clarified by the unfortunate 121) by Rainer Voigt. In the Section Archäologie “Die English terminological confusion between (comparative) archäologische Erforschung Äthiopiens und Eritreas” (pp. 125-143) by Steffen Wenig. In the section Historiographie “Ethiopian Historiography in the Twentieth Century” (pp. 2) A general panorama in J. Bureau, Marcel Cohen et ses successeurs 147-157) by Sven Rubenson, and “A turning-point in ou Cent Ans d’Études Ethiopiennes en France, Contribution à la célébra- tion du centième anniversaire des relations diplomatiques franco-éthiopi- Ethiopian historiography from within” (pp. 159-182) by ennes (Addis Ababa 1997). Bairu Tafla. 3) Textes éthiopiens magico-religieux (Paris: Institut d’Ethnologie 1940). At first sight these essays appear to be fairly unequal, 4) Catalogue des manuscrits éthiopiens de la Collection Griaule (Paris: some of them being devoted to general outlines, while oth- Imprimerie Nationale 1954). 5) We quote only the most important ones: “Mythes, croyances et cou- ers treat particular problems. But one is struck by the tumes du Bégamder (Abyssinie)”, JA 212 (1928) 19-124; Le livre de absence of the history of Ethiopian studies in France, due recettes d’un dabtara abyssin (Paris: Institut d’Ethnologie 1936). to some reason unknown to me. Of course, it is not a ques- 6) Magie, médecine et possession à Gondar (The Hague/Paris: Mouton tion of the elementary fact that the work and the cultural 1967). 7) “Le taureau de Syfou Tchenger”, Minotaure 2 (1933) 75-82; “Le setting of one of the undisputed masters of these studies, culte des Zars à Gondar (Ethiopie septentrionale)”, Aethiopica 2 (1934) 96- Marcel Cohen, has no place in this volume.1) This is highly 103, 125-136; “Un rite médico-magique éthiopien: le jeu du danqarà”, disappointing in itself, but also because, Marcel Cohen hav- Aethiopica 3 (1935) 61-74; “La croyance aux génies “zar” en Ethiopie du ing been a pupil of Antoine Meillet, this connection could nord”, Journal de Psychologie Normale et Pathologique 35 (1938) 108- 152; La possession et ses aspects théâtraux chez les Éthiopiens de Gondar have offered the occasion of studying the connection (Paris: Plon 1958). between Semitic and Indo-European linguistics, and in gen- 8) See for example Th. Cable, “Philology: analysis of written records”, eral of Ethiopian studies, with the cultural climate of France in Edgar C. Polomé (ed.), Research guide on language change (Berlin/New in the first decades of that century. It is exactly from this York: Mouton de Gruyter 1990) 97-105; L. Campbell, “Discussion on historical linguistics and philology” in A. Almquist (ed.), Papers from the 5th last point of view that this lacuna appears all the more International Conference on Historical Linguistics (Amsterdam/Philadel- phia, Benjamins 1983), 442; M. van Mulken, “Copyist behavior: Histori- cal linguistics and text filiation”, in J. Fisiak (ed.), Medieval dialectology (Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter 1995), 153-174, or the volume by 1) For another important personage, Sylvain Grébaut, see the bibliogra- J. Fisiak (ed.), Historical linguistics and philology (Berlin/New York: Mou- phy by J. Tubiana in JA 253 (1965) 123-149. ton de Gruyter 1990). 0993-8_BIOR_2008/1-2_01 21-04-2008 14:39 Pagina 137 269 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — SEMITICA 270 philology and comparative-historical linguistics.9) If it is MSS utilized by Charles in 1906,14) of which 22 collated obvious that any linguistic study must start from a sound directly, one passes to the 32 of Knibb in 1976, of which only philological basis, to reduce philology to such an ancillary 7 collated directly; and above all to a new stemma according role means in fact to eliminate its most important branch, to which the old bipartite genealogy is articulated in three dif- that is textual criticism. Textual criticism is of course con- ferent phases, thanks to the very important MS Tana 9, nected with linguistics, but, as the art d’éditer les anciens known also to Knibb, but too late to be fully utilized.15) For textes (Bédier, 1928), is also quite autonomous on its own, the second question, one cannot help feeling that the book of and also helps (maybe even more) to solve historical prob- Ullendorff on the phonology of the Semitic languages of lems.10) One must speak, therefore, not only of the role of Ethiopia16) has misled many scholars towards the false idea philology inside linguistics, but also of that of philology that Geez was the mother tongue of all the other languages. parallel to linguistics.11) With this concept of philology as False — in all probability — from a factual point of view, a by-product (or pre-product) of linguistics, it can safely be but above all from the point of view of the method employed. stated that at least one half of the most relevant contribu- In U.’s opinion, the phonology of the modern Semitic tions to Ethiopian studies gets lost. Ethiopian languages could be explained just through Geez — For Great Britain, the essay by David Appleyard is very forgetting that these Geez phonemes were at the same time clear and charming. It is obviously centered on the SOAS, simply those of Semitic. Anyway, U.’s book was nothing else and particularly on the personage of Edward Ullendorff — a than the tentative, made by means of a notoriously not very scholar who surely deserves such a treatment (perhaps, from safe classification device like phonology,17) to prove for Geez this point of view, a product of Ullendorff’s teaching activ- what Polotsky (only quoted by U. in this connection on p. ity in St. Andrews could have been mentioned, the PhD The- 229) had suggested for general Ethiopic,18) on the basis of a sis by David Alan Hubbard, The literary sources of the Kebra much more reliable element like the verbal system. Nagast [1957], at present the only systematic essay on this Václav Blazek’s paper is very useful indeed, because it pro- important work).12) vides us with a bibliographical list of books and articles pub- Nevertheless, A.’s essay suffers from two shortcomings: lished in Central and Eastern Europe, so in part not known to the absence of philology (for the reasons indicated above), the specialists.

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