GORGORYOS, ABBA

Abba Gorgoryos, also called Gregorius, or Gregory (1600-165?), was a 17th-century historian and philologist, and a friend of Hiob Ludolf, a German specialist in Ethiopian studies.

Abba Gorgoryos was born in 1600 near Makana Selasse, in the province of Amhara (modern Wallo), and had an ecclesiastical education. Later on, he had an official position at the court of Emperor Susneyos [reigned 1607-32]. He was apparently associated with the Catholic faith because when the last members of the Catholic Mission were expelled from Ethiopia in 1633, he followed the Spanish bishop Alfonso Mendez to Europe.

In Europe, he lived at the monastery of Santo Stefano dei Mori in Rome. It was there that he met Hiob Ludolf, who was later called “the father of Ethiopian studies,” and became his friend. The two worked in Collaboration on questions of Ethiopian philology and history until May 1649. After his return to Germany, Hiob Ludolf maintained an extensive correspondence with Gorgoryos, who, in July 1652, visited him in Gotha, in the province of Thuringia, where Ludolf was an official at the court of Duke Ernest the Pious. Both worked together until September, when Abba Gorgoryos left to return home to Ethiopia. Because of political conditions, however, the journey became lengthy, and en route, he was drowned in a shipwreck in Syria. Together with Hiob Ludolf, he has been regarded as the founder of Ethiopian studies in Europe.

EIKE HABERLAND