Source: National Archives & Historic Records of Ethiopian Empire
Literature & Poetry • Historical Archive • 🇪🇹 Ethiopia • 1 views

Afawarq Gabra Iyasus 🇪🇹

Afawarq Gabra Iyasus (Known as "Afawarq")
Pioneering Author, Professor of Amharic in Naples, Author of 'Libb Welled Tarik'
Born Jul 10, 1868 🇪🇹 Zegie, Lake Tana, Ethiopia
Passed Away Sep 25, 1947 Jimma, Ethiopian Empire
Lifespan 79 years old
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Notice / Correction
"To write a novel in our own mother tongue is to prove that our language can carry every thought of the modern world."

Archival Overview

Pioneering intellectual and linguist who in 1908 published 'Libb Welled Tarik' (Tobbya), the very first novel written in the Amharic language, and served as Professor of Amharic at the Oriental Institute of Naples.

Biographical Record

Afawarq Gabra Iyasus was born on the Zegie peninsula of Lake Tana on July 10, 1868. Noticed for his precocious talent by Empress Taytu, he was sent to Italy in 1887 to study painting and languages in Turin.

In 1908 in Rome, he published Libb Welled Tarik, widely recognized as the foundation stone of modern Amharic prose literature. A brilliant philologist who taught at the University of Naples, his Amharic grammar manuals and travel accounts modernized Ethiopian literary discourse, despite political controversies surrounding his later diplomatic career.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Saint George Church Cemetery
Jimma, Oromia, Ethiopia
GPS: 7.6670, 36.8330
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