Pub Date : 2020-08-20DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0091
Yonatan Tewelde
ABSTRACT:This article addresses the impact of modern European Christian imagery on the visual culture of the Orthodox Tewahedo Church of Eritrea, which has a long history of using illuminated manuscripts, paintings, and crosses as essential elements of worship and prayer. Tewahedo icons are characterized by brown- and black-skinned Christian figures and indigenized settings that narrate Evangelical and monastic scripture for devotees. This study highlights the domination of European white imagery in liturgical spheres in Eritrea and assesses the impact on the semiotic composition of locally produced paintings. Further, nuanced codes of race and skin color are analyzed in relation to connotations of good and evil. The semiotic analysis in this article also shows that European influences are more prevalent in religious paintings that depict recognized saints in Catholic Europe, in comparison to images of local monastic saints, whose depiction continues to mirror the visual metaphors and local myths of the Tigrinya people.
{"title":"The Impact of European Christian Imagery on Contemporary Orthodox Tewahedo Iconography in Eritrea","authors":"Yonatan Tewelde","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0091","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article addresses the impact of modern European Christian imagery on the visual culture of the Orthodox Tewahedo Church of Eritrea, which has a long history of using illuminated manuscripts, paintings, and crosses as essential elements of worship and prayer. Tewahedo icons are characterized by brown- and black-skinned Christian figures and indigenized settings that narrate Evangelical and monastic scripture for devotees. This study highlights the domination of European white imagery in liturgical spheres in Eritrea and assesses the impact on the semiotic composition of locally produced paintings. Further, nuanced codes of race and skin color are analyzed in relation to connotations of good and evil. The semiotic analysis in this article also shows that European influences are more prevalent in religious paintings that depict recognized saints in Catholic Europe, in comparison to images of local monastic saints, whose depiction continues to mirror the visual metaphors and local myths of the Tigrinya people.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"110 - 91"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47828723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-08DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0085
G. Cecere
ABSTRACT:Shaykh Yāqūt al-Ḥabashī (d. 732 ah/1332 ce) is a saintly figure from Mamluk times that is still highly revered in present-day Egypt. He is traditionally described as an Ethiopian slave who became a Ṣūfī master of the ṭarīqa Shādhiliyya in Alexandria. However, both his life and teachings are difficult to reconstruct, as he did not leave any written work and source information on him is fragmentary and inconsistent. This paper tries to shed light, if not on the shaykh’s biography, at least on the making of his hagiographic image, by means of comparative analysis of different biohagiographic traditions on him in Mamluk and Ottoman sources. This will hopefully help to better understand the formation of historical self-representations in the early Shādhiliyya, as well as to gain some fresh insights into social representations of slavery and phenotypic diversity in medieval Egypt.
{"title":"From Ethiopian Slave to Egyptian Ṣūfī Master? Yāqūt al-Ḥabashī in Mamluk and Ottoman Sources","authors":"G. Cecere","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0085","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Shaykh Yāqūt al-Ḥabashī (d. 732 ah/1332 ce) is a saintly figure from Mamluk times that is still highly revered in present-day Egypt. He is traditionally described as an Ethiopian slave who became a Ṣūfī master of the ṭarīqa Shādhiliyya in Alexandria. However, both his life and teachings are difficult to reconstruct, as he did not leave any written work and source information on him is fragmentary and inconsistent. This paper tries to shed light, if not on the shaykh’s biography, at least on the making of his hagiographic image, by means of comparative analysis of different biohagiographic traditions on him in Mamluk and Ottoman sources. This will hopefully help to better understand the formation of historical self-representations in the early Shādhiliyya, as well as to gain some fresh insights into social representations of slavery and phenotypic diversity in medieval Egypt.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"137 - 85"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48513126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-08DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0023
Abbès Zouache
ABSTRACT:In this article, I revisit some aspects of the organization of the Fatimid army, and more specifically to the role played by its black contingents, who are still often considered the most faithful supporters of the dynasty. Wherever they came from and regardless of their social and legal status, black soldiers, whose Egyptian-ness was indisputable, were major players in the history of the Fatimid Caliphate. Medieval authors, who sometimes conveyed negative representations linked with racial bias, and who are not necessarily accurate in dealing with other races, even acknowledged this role.
{"title":"Remarks on the Blacks in the Fatimid Army, Tenth–Twelfth Century CE","authors":"Abbès Zouache","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0023","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:In this article, I revisit some aspects of the organization of the Fatimid army, and more specifically to the role played by its black contingents, who are still often considered the most faithful supporters of the dynasty. Wherever they came from and regardless of their social and legal status, black soldiers, whose Egyptian-ness was indisputable, were major players in the history of the Fatimid Caliphate. Medieval authors, who sometimes conveyed negative representations linked with racial bias, and who are not necessarily accurate in dealing with other races, even acknowledged this role.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"23 - 60"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41882140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-08DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0009
Sobhi Bouderbala
ABSTRACT:This paper deals with the representation of al-Ḥabasha (Abyssinia) in the apocalyptic texts written in early Islam and the importance of Egyptian scholars in the transmission of this material. The historical background of this literature and the political context of its writing shows a strong Yemeni influence, related to the struggle between the kingdoms of Ḥimyar and Axum in the sixth century CE. One could ask if Muslim sholars from Fustat, the new Islamic capital of Egypt, enacted a “coll ective memory” by borrowing apocalyptic material from Christian literature, as well as fragments from the pre-Islamic history of Yemen.
{"title":"Al-Ḥabasha in Miṣr and the End of the World: Early Islamic Egyptian Apocalypse Narratives Related to Abyssinia","authors":"Sobhi Bouderbala","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0009","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This paper deals with the representation of al-Ḥabasha (Abyssinia) in the apocalyptic texts written in early Islam and the importance of Egyptian scholars in the transmission of this material. The historical background of this literature and the political context of its writing shows a strong Yemeni influence, related to the struggle between the kingdoms of Ḥimyar and Axum in the sixth century CE. One could ask if Muslim sholars from Fustat, the new Islamic capital of Egypt, enacted a “coll ective memory” by borrowing apocalyptic material from Christian literature, as well as fragments from the pre-Islamic history of Yemen.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"22 - 9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46620571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-08DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0061
J. Loiseau
ABSTRACT:At the end of the fifteenth century, Muslim students from the Horn of Africa would come to Cairo in their search for knowledge and to dwell in the venerable mosque of al-Azhar. They formed a significant community of foreign students in the Egyptian metropolis, to the extent that they enjoyed their own fraternity where they gathered along their fellow countrymen. The article investigates the gradual development in Cairo of a Muslim community originating from the Horn of Africa. It puts their sudden visibility in the context of the establishment of the first student fraternities in al-Azhar’s history. Finally, it questions their role in the growing connections between Egypt and the Horn of Africa in the later Middle Ages.
{"title":"Abyssinia at al-Azhar: Muslim Students from the Horn of Africa in Late Medieval Cairo","authors":"J. Loiseau","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.19.1.0061","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:At the end of the fifteenth century, Muslim students from the Horn of Africa would come to Cairo in their search for knowledge and to dwell in the venerable mosque of al-Azhar. They formed a significant community of foreign students in the Egyptian metropolis, to the extent that they enjoyed their own fraternity where they gathered along their fellow countrymen. The article investigates the gradual development in Cairo of a Muslim community originating from the Horn of Africa. It puts their sudden visibility in the context of the establishment of the first student fraternities in al-Azhar’s history. Finally, it questions their role in the growing connections between Egypt and the Horn of Africa in the later Middle Ages.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"61 - 84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45257364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0119
Sophia Dege-Müller
{"title":"The Stranger at the Feast Prohibition and Mediation in an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Community by Tom Boylston (review)","authors":"Sophia Dege-Müller","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0119","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"119 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45368263","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0137
Alexander Meckelburg
{"title":"Children of Hope: The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa by Sandra Rowoldt Shell (review)","authors":"Alexander Meckelburg","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0137","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0137","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"137 - 140"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47805431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0141
Viktor Marsai
{"title":"The Horn of Africa since the 1960s: Local and International Politics Intertwined ed. by Aleksi Ylönen and Jan Záhořík (review)","authors":"Viktor Marsai","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.19.2.0141","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"141 - 144"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46965898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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