Alef (‘Aléf)

‘Aléf, Abba, was one of the Nine Saints who came to Ethiopia about the turn of the fifth century as Monophysite missionaries. He went to the land of the Ag’azi and founded a monastery in Beheza in Ahseya. A monastery named after him is said to exist near Adwa, some five kilometres from Yeha. In the Acts of Abba Gärima, ‘Aléf’s place is taken by Abba ‘Os, who, like him, reputedly came from Caesarea. He is commemorated on 11 Mäggabit (20 March).

A. K. Irvine and Seifu Metaferia

Bibliography

A. Dillmann, “Zur Geschichte des Axumitischen Reichs im vierten bis sechsten Jahrhundert,” Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (1880).

E. Littmann, The Legend of the Queen of Sheba (Leyden, 1904).

M. Chaîne, “Répertoire de Salam et Malke’e,” La Revue de l’Orient Chrétien (Paris, 1913). E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia (London, 1928).

——–,* The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church* (Cambridge, 1928), Vol. III, 944.

J.-B. Coulbeaux, Histoire politique et religieuse de l’Abyssinie * (Paris, 1929), Vol. I. M.-A. Van Den Oudenrijn, *La vie de Saint Za Mikä’êl ‘Aragäwi (Fribourg, 1939).

C. Conti Rossini, “L’omilia di Yohannes vescovo di Aksum in onore di Garima,” Actes du Congrès International des Orientalistes, Section Sémitique (Paris, 1898).

——– (ed.), Acta Yärèd et Pantalëwöm, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Scriptores aethiopici, Series altera, t. XVII.

——–, Storia d’Etiopia, (Bergamo, 1928).

This article is reproduced, with permission, from The Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography, Vol. 1 ‘From Early Times to the End of the Zagwé Dynasty c. 1270 A.D.,’ copyright © 1975, edited by Belaynesh Michael, S. Chojnacki and Richard Pankhurst, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. All rights reserved.