BETWEEN ISLAM AND CHRISTENDOM: THE ETHIOPIAN COMMUNITY IN JERUSALEM BEFORE 1517 ANTHONY O'MAHONY Introduction The Ethiopian community in Jerusalem served, at least from after the Cru- sader period onwards, as an important point of contact between Ethiopia and the rest of the Christian world. The encounter which ensued took the form of a prolonged historical dialogue conducted by pilgrims, monks, and travellers who passed through Jerusalem on their way to Europe or Ethiopia. However, over time contacts became more difficult between these two parts of the Christian world as the forces of Islam sought to isolate and conquer I the Ethiopian kingdom.' The great Italian Éthiopisant Enrico Cerulli, in his magisterial Etiopi in Palestina,2 a comprehensive and meticulous historical survey of the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem, elaborates the above encounter between Ethiopia and Europe in the following terms: knowledge regarding Ethiopia found its way to Europe through the itineraries of the European pilgrims who had journeyed to the Holy Land; their informants were members of the Ethiopian community or pilgrims in Jerusalem who, on returning to Ethiopia, in their turn brought back knowledge of Europe; thus the history of the Ethiopian ' Haggai Erlich, Ethiopiaand the Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers 1994), 3-40. On the impact of Islam upon Ethiopia, see J.S. Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952); ,JosephCuoq, L'lslam en Éthiopiedes originesau XVT siicle(Paris: Nouvellestditions Latines, 1981);and Enrico Cerulli, L'Islamde ierie di 0991'(Rome:Pubblicazioni dell' Istituto per l'Oricntc, 1971). 2 Enrico Cerulli, Etiopiin Palestina:Storia della ComunitaEtiopica di Gerusalemme2 vols. (Rome, 1943 and 1947; idem,"Tre nuovi documenti sugli Etiopi in Palestina nel secolo XV," Analecta Biblica12 (1959), 33-47. See the following studies on the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem: E. van Donzel, "The Ethiopian presence in Jerusalem until 1517," The Third International Conferenceon Bilad al-Sham:Palestine 19-24 April 1980 (Yarmouk University, 1983) vol. 1, 93- 104) ;Kirsten Stoffregen-Pedersen,"The Qeddusan:The Ethiopian Christians in the Holy Land," Anthony O'Mahony, Goran Gunner and Kcvork Hintlian, cds., The ChristianHeritage in the Holy Land (London: Cavendish Scorpion, 1995), 129-48; idem,The Historyof theEthiopian Com- munityin the HolyLand,from the timeof EmperorTewodros II till 1974 (Jerusalem: The Ecumenical Institute for Theological Research, Tantur, 1983); and Otto Meinardus, "'I'he Ethiopians in Jerusalem," ZeitschriftftrKirchengeschichte, 76 ( 1 9 65) , 1 1 2 -4 7 , 2 1 7 - 3 2 . 141 presence in Jerusalem is also the history of the geographical, cultural and political knowledge regarding Ethiopia in medieval Europe, and at the same time the history of the initial encounter between Europe and Ethiopia.' It was also in Jerusalem that the medieval European ideas regarding Ethiopia and its sovereign Prester John,' considered to be a potential ally in Chris- tendom's war with Islam, were at least partly formed on the basis of the observations of the European pilgrims in the Holy Land.' It was these ideas, both true and legendary, that stimulated the projects of the navigators of the great European discoveries towards the end of the fifteenth century.6 And as such, the Ethiopian presence in Palestine played an important role in the history of modern times. Ethiopian communities were also established in Rome, and monks and pilgrims were found in other parts of the Middle East, such as in the Coptic monasteries of Egypt,' as well as in Cyprus,' and in the second half of the fifteenth century a small Ethiopian commu- nity was known in Lebanon.9 The encounter with the rest of the Christian world beyond the fastness of highland Christian Ethiopia was a blend of reli- gious, political and cultural contacts. A polyglot Bible attests to an Ethiopian community of monks and pilgrims at a Coptic monastery in the desert around Scetis in the twelfth century.'° Ethiopian monks were also found at the 3 On the relationship bctween Ethiopia and Europe, see the important studies by Renato Lefevre, "RiflessiEtiopici nella cultura Europea del Mcdioevo e des Rinascimento," AnnaliLa- teranensi8 (1944), 9-89; 9 (1 945), 331-444;11 1 (1947), 255-342. 4 Charles F. Bcckingham, "'I'he Achievementsof Prester John," and "The Quest for Prester John," in BetweenIslam and Christendom:Travellers, Facts and Legendsin the MiddleAges and the Ren- aissance(London: Variorum Reprints, 1983), 3-24, 291-310. 5 European travellers to Palestine often reported exaggerated accounts of the decisive role which Ethiopia could play in a united Christian front against the Islamic powers of the East- ern Mediterrranean. On the impact the Ethiopians in Jerusalem had on various pilgrims from Europe to the Holy Land, see Otto Meinardus, "Some Observations of Ethiopian Rit- uals by Mediaeval Pilgrims," Publicationsde l'Institutd"-?tudes Orientales de la BibliothèquePatriarcale dj4lexandrie,13 (1964), 129-36. A constant theme in these accounts since the l4th century is the absolute control which the Ethiopians were believed to have over the flow of the Nile. On the association of Ethiopia and the origins of the Nile in European thought, see O.G.S. Crawford, "Some medieval theories about the Nile," The Geographical Journal114 (1 949),6-29; and Elisabeth-Dorothea Hecht, "Ethiopia threatens to block the Nile," Azania23 (1988), 1-10. '' John Thornton, Africaand African.s in theMaking of theAtlantic World, 1400-1680 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Prcss, 1992), 25, 31-2. 7 Otto Meinardus, "Ethiopian Monks in Egypt," Publicationde l'Institutd'Études Orientales de la BibliothèquePatriarcale d'Alexandrie 11 (1962), 61-70. B Renato Lefevre, "Roma e la Communita Etiopica di Cipro nei Secoli XV e XVI," Rassegnadi StudiEtiopica 1 (1943), 71-86; and Enrico Cerulli, "Two Ethiopian Tales on the Christians of Cyprus," Abba Salama 1 (1970), 178-85. 9 Cerulli, Etiopi in Palestinavol. 1, 325-33. The polyglot Biblical texts are composed in parallel columns in Armenian, Arabic, Cop- tic, Syriac and Ge'ez. A note in MS Paris, Bib. nat., 6th. 46 indicates that the Ethiopian monks were still at Scetis in 1419; Henri Zotenberg, Cataloguedes manuscritséthiopiens (ghe'ez et amharic)de la BibliothèqueNationale (Paris, 1877), 45. For further details, see Marilyn Heldman, .