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The Library

Forty Centuries of Christian Writing

1774 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.

1201–1300

The Thirteenth Century

1 work

c. 1238

Arabic

The Nomocanon

Al-Majmu al-Safawi

Al-Safi ibn al-Assal · 13th century

A systematic code of church and civil law for Egyptian Christians, drawing on Byzantine, Syriac, and Islamic legal material.

Coptic · Canon lawRead elsewhere

1401–1500

The Fifteenth Century

2 works

c. 1400–1450 in Ge'ez

Ge'ez

The Miracles of Mary

Ta'ammera Maryam

Anonymous

Marian miracle stories translated from Arabic and greatly expanded with Ethiopian material, read liturgically and illustrated in brilliantly coloured manuscripts.

Ethiopian · AnthologyRead elsewhere

c. 1441–1450

Ge'ez

The Book of Light

Mashafa Berhan

Zar'a Ya'eqob · 1399–1468

An emperor's treatise ordering the observance of both Sabbath and Sunday, condemning magical practices, and defining correct devotion to Mary and the cross.

Ethiopian · TheologyRead elsewhere

1501–1600

The Sixteenth Century

2 works

c. 1543–1559

Arabic

The Conquest of Abyssinia

Futuh al-Habasa

Arab-Faqih · 16th century

A Muslim chronicler's account of the invasion that destroyed most of Christian Ethiopia's churches and manuscripts in the 1530s and 1540s.

Ethiopian · HistoryRead elsewhere

1593

Ge'ez

The History of the Galla

Bahrey · 16th century

An Ethiopian monk's account of the Oromo migrations, asking why a people with no king or fortress could defeat a Christian empire, and answering that its own society was too unequal to fight.

Ethiopian · HistoryRead elsewhere