Fetha Negest

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The Fetha Negest or Law of Kings is a code of law recorded in Arabic in 1240 by the Coptic Egyptian scribe, 'Abul Fada'il Ibn al-'Assal . 'Ibn al-Assal used some apostolic writings for his laws and also earlier legal texts of Byzantine rulers.

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The first part deals essentially with church affairs; he outlines the hierarchy within the church, the structure of the sacraments and similar things. The source used was the Bible, writings of early church fathers, including Basil the Great and Hippolytus of Rome , as well as various church laws that were passed at the Council of Nicaea , the Council of Antioch and others.

The second section deals with common people matters such as family law, debts, administration, etc. and also relies on these sources. For the most part, however, it is traced back to four books, which are referred to as the "Canon of Kings". Various scholars have identified these books as:

  1. Procheiros nomos , a Byzantine legal text which wasenactedby the Emperor Basil I between 870 and 878;
  2. the Arabic version of a work commonly known as the Syriac-Roman Law Book , originally written in Greek around 480 ;
  3. the Arabic version of the Ecloga , a further Byzantine legal text, which by the Emperor Leo III. and his son was published in 726;
  4. Old Testament rules , a collection of Torah laws annotated with Christian annotations

From this it can be seen that the work of 'Ibn' al-Assal is strongly influenced by Roman law ; because the first three sources were strongly influenced by the laws of Justinian I and older law books. The original title was Collection of Canons . However, the Arabic version is commonly known as the nomocanon of Ibn al-'Assal . The Fetha Negest was intended for the Coptic Christians in Egypt, who recognized it as binding.

Later story

Some historical sources indicate that the Fetha Nagast was the Altäthiopische translated and arrived in 1450, to rule Zara Yaqobs , after Ethiopia . The application by Sarsa Dengel as a constitutional law at the beginning of 1563 is documented in writing .

The ancient Ethiopian edition is attributed to Petros Abda Sayd. It is an imprecise translation of the original Ibn al-'Assal and differs significantly in several places. Obviously, Petros had some difficulties with the Arabic template. Scholars have shown that the first part, the Church Law, was used as part of Senodos in Ethiopia before this time, and that the title Fetha Negest , Law of Kings, refers to the second part, which was new to the country .

The Fetha Negest was officially the supreme law in Ethiopia until 1931. It was replaced by a modern constitution by the emperor Haile Selassie . A completely modernized penal code based on Fetha had already appeared in 1930 . Shortly after taking office as regent and before his coronation as emperor, in 1921 he had certain “cruel and unusual” punishments, such as the amputation of hands in the event of theft, which fetha prescribed, abolished.

See also

literature

  • Fetha Nagast: The Law of the Kings . (English translation from Old Ethiopian by Abba Paulos Tzadua , edited by Peter L. Strauss) Faculty of Law, Haile Selassie I. University (Addis Ababa 1968).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German translation: Stefan Leder: The Arabic Ecloga. The fourth book of the Canons of Kings from the collection of Makarius . Löwenklau Society, Frankfurt a / M 1985.