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FEATURES | EASTERN HORIZON 37

Europe was not the final destination
of the Buddha narrative in the
form of the legend of Barlaam
and Josaphat. The existence of the
story was also known in Ethiopia,
perhaps well before the 16th
century. It was documented by Abha
Bahrey, a 16th-century Ethiopian
historian who mentioned the book,
possibly a translation into Ge’ez or
Ethiopic from Greek, in his Psalter
of Christ dated 1528 CE. After the
official adoption of Christianity in
330 CE, Ethiopian Christians began Handwritten version of Barlaam
to translate the sacred texts: the and Josaphat in Ge’ez with the title
Bible, the New Testament and the ‘Baralam and Yewasef’, copied at
Pentateuch into the Ge’ez language. around 1746-’55 from an older
Many writings that were first translation from Arabic into Ge’ez.
Illustrated Italian version of compiled in Aramaic or Greek have Credit: British Library
Barlaam and Josaphat printed been fully preserved only in Ge’ez
in Venice around 1650 CE. The as the sacred books of the Ethiopian Jana Igunma is the lead curator of
illustration depicts one of the four Church. There is a vast corpus Buddhist artefacts at the British
signs: Josaphat’s encounter with a of scriptures that have survived Library.
leper. Credit: British LibraryTitle exclusively only in Ge’ez.
page of a version in Spanish which This article first appeared on
attributes the legend to John of ADVERTISEMENT the Asian and African Studies Blog, a
Damascus, ‘Doctor of the Greek Another translation into Ge’ez with publication of the British Library.
Church’. It was printed in Madrid in the title Baralam and Yewasef was EH
1608 CE. Credit: British Library executed from the Arabic version
of Bar-sauma ibn Abu ‘l-Faraj by
one Enbiikom, or Habakkuk, for the
king Galawdewds, or Claudius. It is
dated AM 7045 which corresponds
to 1553 CE. A surviving copy was
written during the reign of king
‘Iyasu II from 1730-55 CE.