Al-Malik al-Afḍal’s 14th century “Arabic-Ethiopic Glossary” as an attempt at language documentation

Chroniques du manuscrit au Yémen. 2017. No. 1. P. 1–30.

Булах М. С.

The article evaluates the aims and methods of creation of the so-called “Arabic-Ethiopic Glossary”, a 14th century word list compiled by order of the Yemenite sultan of the Rasulid dynasty al-Malik al-Afḍal al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAlī. It claims that the Glossary was created with a purely scientific aim of recording a little-known language, that its compilers were likely unaware of the linguistic diversity of the recorded material (hence the name “Ethiopic” in the title), and that the informants were in all probability Ethiopian slaves who, as is well known, were present in South Arabia since Antiquity.

Ключевые слова: Йемен, Yemen, Ethiosemitic Languages, Эфиосемитские языки, Эфиопия, Ethiopia