Archival Practices and Preservation Methods in Ethiopian Manuscript Tradition

Focusing on the ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat monastery in Goǧǧām

2023–2025

RFE18

Sample page from the archival document of ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat monastery manuscript collection

The ecclesiastical centers of Ethiopia hold vast archives of historical, legal, administrative, and other documents, as well as thousands of ancient biblical, canonical, and liturgical manuscripts. The monastic archive studies comprise four main elements: archiving technique, archival documents, material element, and manuscript preservation method, which are interconnected and, in some cases, interchangeable. This project aims to investigate the tradition of archiving and preserving archival documents in the monastery of Ethiopia, with a focus on ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat Monastery, located on the Zage peninsula of Lake Ṭānā and founded in the fourteenth century.

ʿUra Kidāna Məḥrat monastery has a huge manuscript collection and a structured archival arrangement. Based on the inventory of the monastery’s manuscripts and precious objects, the register lists more than 351 manuscripts. Besides its biblical and liturgical manuscript collection, the monastery also possesses a rich archival corpus of administrative documents, religious and secular, that has not yet received scholarly attention. In this research, the monastery’s archival documents and the tradition of archiving documentary texts are examined. The production and preservation processes of archival documents, and their socio-economic and historical significance in constraining and reconstructing the local and national history of the country, are discussed.

People

Project lead: Dirbwork Bitsu Kassa

More Information

Project Outcome, Research Activities, and Achievements

Publications

2025. ‘Local practice of Manuscript cataloguing in Ethiopia’, Proceedings of the 21^st International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Vol 2 (2025), 81–108.
2025. ‘Archive Building in Gondar, Ethiopia’, Material Cultures of Archiving: An Introduction to a Global and Historical Practice, edited by Markus Friedrich, 2025,
Case Study 5.2: Archive Building in Gondar, Ethiopia
2025. ‘Leather-laminated Boxes from Ethiopia’, Material Cultures of Archiving: An Introduction to a Global and Historical Practice, edited by Markus Friedrich, 2025,
Case Study 3.3: Leather-laminated Boxes from Ethiopia
‘Practices and Limitations of the Printed Manuscript Catalogue in Ethiopia and its Transition from Monastic and Church Inventory’, submitted to Proceedings of the IIè Colloque sur les études éthiopiennes.

Conference papers

11/2025 ‘Involving Parties and Their Roles in Archival Documents of ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat Monastery at Zage Peninsula (19^th –20^th century)’, at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, at Boston, November 2025.
01/2025 ‘Archival Practice and Documentary Texts at the Monastery of ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat in Zage’ at the Forschungscolloquium of the Asien-Afrika-Institute, Hamburg, January 15, 2025.
11/2025 ‘Practices and Limitations of Printed Manuscript Catalogue in Ethiopia and its Transition’ in the workshop ‘Cataloguing Practices in the Ethiopian and Eritrean Manuscript Studies' at the University of Naples ‘L'Orientale’ on 21—22 November 2024.
07/2024 ‘Medieval Afterlives and Medievalism: Recording and Keeping Archival Documents in the Monastic Archive: The Case of Recorded Documents in ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat Monastery’. At Leeds, International Medieval Congress, 1—5 July 2024.
https://imcleeds.confex.com/imc/2024/meetingapp.cgi/Session/5912
02/2024 ‘Recording and Keeping Documentary Texts in the Monastic Archive: The Case of ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat Monastery’, Société d’Archéologie Copte - SAC - Colloque sur les études éthiopiennes, at Cairo, 26–29 February 2024.
09/2023 ‘History and Practice of Local Manuscript Cataloging in Ethiopia at Hiob Ludolf Centre Summer School in Working in Manuscript Studies: Traditional and New Approaches, with a focus on the Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition, 4—15 September 2023, University of Hamburg.
10/2022 ‘Manuscript Cataloguing Practice in Ethiopia’ at 21^st International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (ICES21), at Addis Ababa University, 28 September—1 October 2022.
I co-organized a panel at the 22^nd International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (ICES21), at Hawassa, Panel 2.2: “New Approaches to the Ethiopian Archival Tradition.” programs | ICES 22 HU

Internal presentations

06/2023, ‘Archival Practices and Preservation Methods in Ethiopian Manuscript Tradition: The Monastery of ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat’, at the research field E; Archival Artifacts, monthly meeting, Hamburg.
10/2023, ‘Archival Practices and Preservation Methods in Ethiopian Manuscript Tradition: The Monastery of ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat in Zage’, at CSMC Doctoral Colloquium.
01/2025, ‘Shifting Values and Interconnectivity of Archival Elements in Ethiopian Monastic Archive’, at the research field E, Archival Artifacts, monthly meeting, Hamburg.
05/2025, ‘Archival Practices and Preservation Methods in Ethiopian Manuscript Tradition: The Monastery of ʿUrā Kidāna Məḥrat in Zage’, at CSMC Doctoral Colloquium.