The Fetah Nagast: Law of the King
Translated from Ge’ez: Abba Paulos Tzadua
Edited by: Peter L. Strauss
Paperback: 339 pages
First Published: 1968
Publisher: Frontline Books; Reprint edition (December 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0948390433
ISBN-13: 978-0948390432
Details: The Fetha Nagast, or The Law of the Kings, is the foundation of Ethiopian law, and was perhaps the first written law of sub-Saharan Africa. Derived from Roman Law and church canons of the Eastern Rite, it was brought up the Nile in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and there translated into Ge’ez, the local church language. While its early use is uncertain, by the end of the nineteenth century it had become the basis for the development of national law. Translated into Italian then, this English translation by Abba (later Cardinal) Paulos Tzadua was first published in Ethiopia in 1968, edited by Peter Strauss. This new edition, with added historical notes by Cardinal Tzadua and the German scholar Peter Sand, faithfully reproduces the first edition and makes this historic text readily available to American readers.