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Translation and Early Transmission of the Ethiopic Synaxarion

PhD project by Dorothea Reule

In my doctoral project, I am investigating the early transmission of the Ethiopic synaxarion (Sənkəssār) and its relationship to its Arabic Vorlage.

The synaxarion is a liturgical work of the Christian Orient, which is still in use today. It is arranged according to the calendar and contains on day one or more commemorations for events and persons of relevance to the church in question.
The Copto-Arabic synaxarion (as-Sinaksār/as-Sinaksārī) was written in Arabic before the 14th century. Probably at the end of the 14th century, the monk Səmʿon from the monastery of St Anthony on the Red Sea translated it into Old Ethiopic (so-called first recension A, CAe 4032, attested in three manuscripts). The second translation, likely independent of Səmʿon's work, was probably produced somewhat later (the so-called first recension B, CAe 4033, attested in nine manuscripts).

Although there exist an edition of the Ethiopic synaxarion and two editions of the Copto-Arabic one, the new manuscript witnesses that have surfaced in recent decades necessitate a new investigation into this important work.

My dissertation is therefore built upon the description and examination of all currently known manuscript witnesses of the Copto-Arabic synaxarion and the Ethiopic first recensions A and B. The guiding questions of the investigation are: can the Arabic Vorlagen of the Ethiopic translations be identified? Are the Ethiopic first recension A and B two independent translations? How did the translators work?
To answer these questions, I am working on several tasks:

• The compilation of an index of commemorations of all manuscripts of the synaxarion accessible to me allows a systematic comparison of the Copto-Arabic and early Ethiopic traditions.
• The text-critical study of the Ethiopic first recensions makes it possible to identify, with a high degree of probability, two independent translations. A special focus of the study is on the first recension B, which has not yet been edited. A stemma codicum is proposed for this recension.
• In a linguistic comparison between Arabic and Ethiopic as well as between the Ethiopic first recension A and B, characteristic features of the translation language will be identified. The guiding question here is whether individual working techniques and stylistic characteristics of the respective translators can be identified in the comparison between the two Ethiopian translations.

The main aim of my doctoral project is to gain a better understanding of the complex tradition of the synaxarion. The synaxarion is an example for the numerous works that were translated first from Greek and then from Arabic into ancient Ethiopic. Focusing attention on the translation process itself as a complex cultural technique allows us to appreciate the intellectual and creative achievement of the translators and their formative contribution to Ethiopic literature and culture.