The only documents of the Zagwe state: grants of land and rights written into a Gospel book at Dabra Libanos of Ham in Eritrea, in the names of Zagwe kings (Tantawedem, Lalibela with his queen Masqal Kebra, Na'akueto La'ab) and their officers, with lists of estates and titles. They fix the royal titulature and the reach of Zagwe authority into the northern highlands and give two dated acts of Lalibela (1204 and 1225), the only firm dates of his reign. A few other charters survive in the registers of Aksum and Dabra Damo. The texts are short and formulaic and the dating of some acts is argued.
About this source
- Title
- The acts in the Golden Gospel of Dabra Libanos of Ham and other Zagwe land grants
- Author
- Various
- Author's dates
- Zagwe kings and clergy of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
- Written
- the acts were entered on the Gospel's blank leaves from the twelfth century onward; the Zagwe acts date from about 1150 to 1270
- Language
- Ge'ez
- Covers
- the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries
- Kind
- Charters and cartularies
Conti Rossini's 1901 publication was not found online. The Beta masaheft project is preparing a new edition. The regnal years in Lalibela's acts are converted by different scholars to 1204 and 1225; Derat's redating of the Zagwe would move them.
Where to read it
Editions
- C. Conti Rossini, L'evangelo d'oro di Dabra Libanos, Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, ser. 5, vol. 10 (1901), pp. 177 to 219, Ge'ez text with Italian translation (not freely online)
Translations
- Italian translation in Conti Rossini (1901), see editions (not freely online)