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419:: "If I say that my father and my mother created me, then I must search for the creator of my parents and of the parents of my parents until they arrive at the first who were not created as we but who came into this world in some other way without being generated." However, the knowability of God does not depend on human intellect, but "Our soul has the power of having the concept of God and of seeing him mentally. God did not give this power purposelessly; as he gave the power, so did he give the
369:. He found a patron, a rich merchant named Habta Egziabher (known as Habtu), and married a maid of the family. He refused to live as a monk and stated that "the law of Christians which propounds the superiority of monastic life over marriage is false and can’t come from God." However, he also rejected polygamy because "the law of creation orders one man to marry one woman."
376:, Yacob wrote his famous 1667 treatise investigating the light of reason. Little is known of Yacob's later life. However, it is believed that he lived a fulfilled family life in Emfraz, and remained there for the next 25 years. He died there in 1692. Yacob's year of death was recorded by Walda Heywat in an annotation to the
488:'s authenticity in 1976 with statistical evidence showing the duality of authors in their differing Biblical quotations, using five newly found letters of d'Urbino in Rome. Sumner also argued that d'Urbino had worse knowledge of Ge'ez than originally presented, and that he did not share the ideas of the
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and lived in it as a hermit for two years, praying and developing his philosophy. He wrote of his experience, "I have learnt more while living alone in a cave than when I was living with scholars. What I wrote in this book is very little; but in my cave I have meditated on many other such things."
463:
in 1920, who claimed it was forged by father Giusto d'Urbino, an
Italian scholar who worked in Ethiopia. The arguments are extrinsic, based on the manuscripts' recent age, his knowledge of Ethiopic language and culture, the information on Islam also being known by d'Urbino, and the fact that he
396:
is decided by whether it advances or degrades overall harmony in the world. While he did believe in a deity, whom he referred to as God, he rejected any set of particular religious beliefs. Rather than deriving beliefs from any organized religion, Yacob sought the truth in observing the natural
431:, starting the chapter with: "All men are equal in the presence of God; and all are intelligent since they are his creatures; he did not assign one people for life, another for death, one for mercy, another for judgment. Our reason teaches us that this sort of discrimination cannot exist."
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as if he were an animal. But with our intelligence, we understand that this
Mohammedan law cannot come from the creator of man who made us equal, like brothers, so that we call our creator our father." At the time, slavery was
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goes further than these former texts, as he argues in following one's natural reasoning instead of believing what one is told by others. He was a contemporary of the female activist
629:
Claude Sumner, "The Light and the Shadow: Zera Yacob and Walda Heywat: Two
Ethiopian Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century," in Wiredu and Abraham, eds.,
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and Ato
Alemayyehu Moges argued for the authenticity of the work, based on its nonreligious contents, sentence structure, and the particularity of the
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word for "seed"). Although his father was poor, he supported Yacob's attendance of traditional schools, where he became acquainted with the Psalms of
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Philosophi
Abessini. Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Vol. 18, Scriptores Aethiopici
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Ethiopian
Philosophy, vol. II: The Treatise of Zara Yaecob and Walda Hewat: Text and Authorship
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Teodros Kiros, "Zera Yacob and
Traditional Ethiopian Philosophy," in Wiredu and Abraham, eds.,
525:"Yacob and Amo: Africa's precursors to Locke, Hume and Kant – Dag Herbjørnsrud | Aeon Essays"
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in the 17th century. His 1667 treatise, developed around 1630 and known in the original
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Yacob became the teacher of Habtu's two sons, and at the request of his patron's son
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This article is about the early modern philosopher. For the medieval emperor, see
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609:, Presses Républicaines, 1904. Contains the Ge'ez text of Zera Yacob's treatise.
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philosophy surrounding the principle of harmony. He proposed that an action's
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in northern
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Refusing to adopt the
Catholic faith, Yacob fled into exile with some
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For centuries, Ge'ez texts had been written in Ethiopia. Around 1510,
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faith in his kingdom in 1633. Yacob left his cave and settled in
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faith and ordered his subjects to follow his own example.
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Mohammedans said that it is right to go and buy a man
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654:"The African Enlightenment," AEON, 13 December 2017
423:." He argued too against discrimination, predating
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661:- A blog with commentary on Zera Yacob's treatise.
357:(r. 1632–1667), a firm adherent of the Ethiopian
345:in the south, he found a cave at the foot of the
322:Christian faith. He was denounced before Emperor
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492:at the time he was supposed to have written it.
464:discovered the two extant manuscripts. In 1934,
353:After the death of the Emperor, Susenyos's son
252:, a collection of sayings from the early Greek
472:, and scholarly interest in the work waned.
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302:Yacob was born into a farmer family near
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326:(r. 1607–1632), who had turned to the
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626:, Commercial Printing Press, 1978.
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209:; 28 August 1599 – 1692) was an
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695:History of religion in Ethiopia
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272:and the Ethiopian discussions.
578:Classical Ethiopian Philosophy
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403:, Yacob applied the idea of a
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685:17th-century Ethiopian people
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388:Yacob is most noted for this
250:Book of the Wise Philosophers
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705:Ethiopian philosophers
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455:The authorship of the
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238:Discours de la méthode
413:cosmological argument
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211:Ethiopian philosopher
659:Ethiopian Philosophy
318:and educated in the
124:Christian philosophy
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411:, thus proposing a
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669:Categories
534:2019-06-16
509:References
425:John Locke
397:world. In
156:Zera Yacob
51:1599-08-28
34:Zera Yacob
21:Zara Yaqob
355:Fasilides
287:Biography
262:Aristotle
561:June 16,
496:See also
394:morality
378:Treatise
363:Catholic
324:Susenyos
264:via the
241:(1637).
207:ዘርዐ ያዕቆብ
140:Language
89:Begemder
40:ዘርዐ ያዕቆብ
633:, 2004.
597:, 2004.
486:Inquiry
421:reality
390:ethical
277:Inquiry
229:Inquiry
221:as the
490:Hatata
480:used.
470:Hatata
457:Hatata
436:Hatata
429:Hatata
417:Hatata
400:Hatata
367:Emfraz
339:Psalms
260:, and
224:Hatata
119:School
107:Hatata
85:Emfraz
556:(PDF)
478:Ge'ez
343:Shewa
316:David
312:Ge'ez
304:Aksum
258:Plato
215:Aksum
203:Ge'ez
144:Ge'ez
59:Aksum
563:2019
529:Aeon
335:gold
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74:Died
45:Born
171:ɪər
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