Il Gadla ʾAzqir

The Ethiopic Gadla ʾAzqir, «Acts of ʾAzqir», is a hagiographic text only known in Ethiopic version and transmitted by over twenty manuscripts of the homiletic-liturgical collection of hagiographic genre known as Gadla samāʿtāt, «Acts of the martyrs». Though composed in a literary garb, the data provided by this document on the Christianization of South Arabia and the religious situation at the time are matched by epigraphic data and later literary traditions and appear to some extent reliable and of historical value. The narrative refers to events which might have taken place in the time span of AD 470-475. The Ethiopic text, first published by Carlo Conti Rossini in 1910 on the basis of two manuscripts, was eventually re-translated, but never re-edited. The Gadla ʾAzqir is re-edited here on the basis of the twenty-two manuscripts that were accessible to the editor. The edition is preceded by an introduction where some of the main questions posed by the text are dealt with. The text edition is provided with a set of apparatuses and the translation with an essential commentary, where a few text-critical questions are adressed more in detail.