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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2004-04 > 1081873995


From: (Jared Linn Olar)
Subject: Re: POSSIBLE GATEWAY: FROM AFRICA TO EUROPE
Date: 13 Apr 2004 09:33:15 -0700
References: <c57e4f24.0403141731.5b931209@posting.google.com> <00f601c40aee$508f9da0$9b0d0043@hppav> <010401c40af0$dd3b5b20$9b0d0043@hppav> <7004aa4b.0403161328.2409e930@posting.google.com> <40582A2C.1070409@interfold.com> <7004aa4b.0403171315.e1450fe@posting.google.com> <40591FC1.6080000@interfold.com> <ac1a3786.0404051920.56e6a1f6@posting.google.com> <0Lzcc.47119$Hg2.43344@newssvr25.news.prodigy.com>


"Chris Bennett" <> wrote in message news:<0Lzcc.47119$>...
> Unfortunately, the version of the kinglist that this comes from is reported
> by a career British diplomat who obtained it by making a request to the
> government of Ras Tafari (later Haile Selassie I). It's provenance is
> otherwise unknown. Given the date and circumstance, it probably represents
> the best of Ethiopian scholarship of the 1920s, which no doubt drew in turn
> on the latest European scholarship available to it. In other words, its
> useless.

I suppose you're referring to the kinglist in C. F. Rey's "In the
Country of the Blue Nile" (1927)? Because that's the one I mean.
Since I don't know when European scholars discovered the Nubian kings
Kashta and Piye/Piankhiy, I couldn't say whether Rey's kinglist was
contaminated by European scholars. For what it's worth, the relevant
section of Rey's kinglist shows this series of names (beginning with
the alleged son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Makeda):

Menelik I, Hanyon, Sera I (Tomai), Amen Hotep Zagdur, Aksumay Ramissu,
Awseyo Sera II, Tawasya II, Abralyus Piyankihi II, Aksumay Warada
Tsahay, Kashta Hanyon, Sabaka II, Nicauta Kandake, Tsawi Terhak Warada
Nagash, Erda Amen Awseya, Gasiyo Eskikatir, Nuatmeawn, Tomadyon
Piyankihi III, etc.

The relevant names here are Piyankihi, Kashta, Sabaka II, Terhak, Erda
Amen, and Nuatmeawn, which match names of kings from Egypt's Dynasty
XXV, the Nubian dynasty -- i.e., Kashta, Piankhiy, Shabaka, Taharka,
the "Urdemane" of Assyrian texts, and Tanutamon. "Terhak" is probably
assimilated to the biblical spelling ("Tirhakah").

So, this kinglist of Rey's is different from earlier versions of the
Ethiopian kinglist, with the Nubian kings having been shown to be
interpolations?

Jared Linn Olar

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