Identification
Titles: šayḫ, šah
Dates
-
Death
Expressed
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Birth
Estimated
Biographic comments
Ethiopian Muslim converted to Christianity, born around 1840 in Begemder from a Muslim family. After having received his traditional Islamic education, he moved to Soqota where he started teaching and where he started changing his exegetical approach towards the Qurʼān. In particular he was stimulated by some divine visions to compare its content to the New and Old Testament that ha had obtained in their Arabic version from the Swedish Mission. The new message he spreaded was that the Qurʼān does not contradict but supports the truths of the Christian faith, thus provoking the indignant reaction of the Muslim community. In 1906 he obtained from Menelik the permission to continue in his teaching which started to instigate conversions from Islam to Christianity. Šah Zäkkarǝyas was baptized in 1910, but he and his disciples were not assimilated by the Ethiopian Church. His thought has been transmitted by a work he wrote in Arabic in 1906/7, in Addis Ababa, also known in a following Amharic translation.
Additional information
References
- Place Place of birth Gondar / Begemder, Amhara, ET
- Place Place of activity Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa district, Shewa Zone, ET
- Place Place of activity Soqota, Amhara, Wag Hemra Zone, ET
- Place Place of activity Ethiopia
Bibliographical references
- La "Silloge" di šäh Zäkkareyas (analisi prelimi... on page
- La “Silloge” di šah Zakkāryās. Testo arabo orig... on page
- La “Silloge” di šah Zakkāryās sull'Islam - Vers... on page
- Arabic Literature of Africa. Volume 3 Fascicle ... on page 64