Word: coptic
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Ethiopia, contrary to popular misconception, is not a Christian country. It is not even Coptic Christian. Unroll an authoritative religious map of the Empire, such as that in the current January issue of Foreign Affairs, and the facts are evident. In trifling quantity a few Christians are to be found near Addis Ababa, and the Coptic Christians, to which faith the Imperial Family appertains, form an island in the Mohammedan and pagan sea of peoples which is Ethiopia...
...legend that Ethiopia's Imperial Family is descended from the seduction by King Solomon of Sheba's Virgin Queen is pure myth. Last month Oxford's University Press exploded it anew with A History of Abyssinia ($2.25) in which the adoption of this legend by Coptic priests to give Ethiopia's present dynasty a savor of ancient lineage and of Biblical if not Divine authority is traced with British scholarship...
Nearest Italian bombs of the week thundered in the countryside a good 100 miles from Addis Ababa, but native morale was at lowest ebb thus far. The Most Reverend Kyrillos, Abuna of Ethiopia's Coptic Christian Church, hailed the peace deal proposed by Britain & France as "Words of God." To the Abuna the great feature of The Deal was one scarcely noticed out-side Ethiopia but showing the grasp of native mentality applied by Mr. Maurice Drummond Peterson, technical expert of Britain's Foreign Office, in concocting The Deal. It provides that Italy must evacuate, surrender and restore...
...Yasu seized the throne of Ethiopia, won a grudging allegiance from the most important Rases. Almost immediately he got into difficulties. None too ardent a Christian, he attempted to bolster his reign by organizing a federation of tributary Mohammedan States. He promptly found himself excommunicated by the Coptic Church, and shortly thereafter pushed from the throne by his aunt, Zauditu (Judith) with the aid of his cousin, wily Ras Tafari, the present Haile Selassie...
...Quite different from Ras Desta Demtu was Haile Selassie's other son-in-law, bug-eyed little Haile Selassie Gugsa. Ruler of the eastern part of Tigre Province, he is a direct descendant of that King John of Ethiopia still venerated as a saint by the Coptic Church. His great-uncle, John IV, was a sworn enemy of fierce-whiskered old Emperor Menelik who later defeated the Italians at Aduwa. Ras Gugsa's father kept up the family feud against Menelik and his grandnephew, Ethiopia's present Emperor, was on the best of terms with the Italian...