Preface
The background and aim of the series ACTA AETHIOPICA was explained in the preface and introduction to volume I, Correspondence and Treaties 1800-1854 (Addis Abeba and Evanston, 1987). The project to make known "the voice of the Ethiopians" has now resulted in a second volume, Tewodros and His Contemporaries 1855-1868.
Now that this volume is finally ready for publication, I want to express my gratitude to the sponsors of the project, to my co-editors, and to the many archivists, librarians, colleagues and friends who have made it possible for us to complete the work.
Two of the senior scholars of Addis Ababa University, Dr. Merid Wolde Aregay from the Department of History and Dr. Amsalu Aklilu from the School of Languages, kindly joined me as co-editors of the present volume. They have worked tirelessly on the translations of the Gi'iz and Amharic documents in particular, and have generously advised me on all issues that have arisen in connection with matters of Ethiopian society, culture and mentality, so necessary to know in order to grasp the intent of some of the authors. The documents in Arabic once more posed special problems, which led to the co-option of my son Samuel as editor for those. He has also taken much of the responsibility for the production of the index and the final technical editing of the volume.
Over the years we have naturally benefited from the advice of many other colleagues who have shared their knowledge and insight with us. Dr. Hussein Ahmed of the Department of History, AAU, made the first drafts of a number of the Arabic translations. The members of the graduate seminar at the Department of Middle Eastern Languages in Lund discussed some of these translations at length before they found their final form. Dr. Adhana Mengistab, Addis Abeba, and Dr. Tekeste Negash, Uppsala, helped to identify places and persons in Eritrea. The late Dr. Aster Akalu and Dr. Kjell Norlin, Lund, Dr. Taddese Beyene, Addis Abeba, and Professor Alessandro Sandro,Rome, provided important advice on difficult passages in other documents.
For the clarity and readability of the English translations I am deeply indebted to the late editor of the Addis Ababa University Press, Mrs Innes Marshall, who worked long hours with us over the early versions of the translations, and to my English language editor in Lund, Dr. Bengt Ellenberger. In some cases it has been necessary in the interest of readability to choose a less literal translation than my co-editors wanted. Where several translations were possible or at least seemed to be so, I
have made the choice, largely on contextual grounds. It is only fair, therefore, that I accept the responsibility for all shortcomings of the volume, linguistic as well as historical.
We are grateful to the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, to the Conservateur en Chef of the diplomatic archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the head of the National Archives of Egypt, as well as to the keepers of all other archives concerned for their kind permission to have documents in their possession published in ACTA JETHIOPICA. Our gratitude likewise goes to the many archivists and librarians who have so generously assisted us in our search.
A special thanks is due to Monsignor Giuseppe Metzler for his invaluable help in locating one of the most important letters of this volume at the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, namely the letter of King Tewodros's rival Dejjazmac]t Niguse to the Pope in 1858.
The generous financial aid of the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries and of the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences is acknowledged with deep gratitude. |
