Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)
18 March 2005
Mr Sam Fogg, the well-known London book-seller and Orientalist, has presented the Institute of Ethiopian Studies Library with an important 19th century manuscript copy of the Ge'ez Fetha Nagast, or "Laws of the Kings".
This beautiful work was written for the German Protestant missionary Dr Henry Stern, a somerime detainee of Emperor Tewodros, by an Ethiopian scribe called Alaka Worke.
The volume was formerly in the possession of a member of the Beta Esra'el, or Falasha, community, who sold it in Jerusalem. In then passed into the possession of Mr Sam Fogg, who felt it should be repatriated to Ethiopia.
The gift to the Institute Library was made through SOFIES, the Society of Friends of the Institute of Ethiopian Studuies. Its Chairman, Professor Richard Pankhurst pointed out that copies of the Fetha Nagast, though of major legal and cultural mportance, were traditionally always very rare. The volume therefore forms a valuable accession to the IES Library.
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