Getatchew Haile

Getatchew Haile reading Ge`ez manuscripts at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, March 29, 2012

Getatchew Haile (June 1, 1932- ) is an Ethiopian-American philologist widely considered the foremost scholar of the Ge'ez language alive today. He was acknowledged for his contributions to the field with a MacArthur Fellows Program "genius" award and the Edward Ullendorff Medal from the Council of the British Academy.

He is Regents Professor Emeritus of Medieval Studies at Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota, and Curator Emeritus of the Ethiopian Study Center at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) at Saint John's, where he began work in 1976. At HMML, he prepared catalogues of more than five thousand Ethiopian manuscripts and trained Ethiopic manuscript cataloguers in paleography, dating, and other skills. Previously he was associate professor in the Department of Ethiopian Languages and Literature, Haile Sellasie I University (now Addis Ababa University), from 1962 to 1969, and 1971 to 1974, where he taught Amharic Grammar, Amharic Literature, Ge’ez Grammar, Ge’ez Literature, Arabic Grammar, and Semitic Linguistics. He is on the advisory board of a number of journals, including Comité de lecture of Analecta Bollandiana (Journal of Christian Hagiography), Ethiopian Journal of Education, Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Northeast African Studies, Ethiopian Register (1994-2001), and Acta Aethiopica (1980–89).

He was born in Shenkora (in the province of Shoa, Ethiopia) and from 1945 to 1951 he attended Trinity School in Addis Abeba. He graduated from the Coptic Theological College, Cairo, Egypt with a B.D. in 1957; from the American University in Cairo, with a B.A. in 1957; and from the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, with a Ph.D. in Semitic Philology, in 1962.

In addition to his writings and translations of a variety of works on Ethiopia and the Orthodox church, he has produced two 2-volume books on the history and beliefs of Abba Estifanos of Gwendagwende, one in 2006 the other in 2011.

Honors and distinctions

• Honoree of a festschrift volume in 2017: Studies in Ethiopian Languages, Literature, and History Festschrift for Getatchew Haile Presented by his Friends and Colleagues.^[1]
• Council of the British Academy, Edward Ullendorff Medal 2014, awarded for scholarly distinction and achievements in the field of Semitic languages or Ethiopian studies.
• Ethiopia Diaspora organizations’ recognition for community service, May 26, 1996; November 9, 1996; May 26, 2001; and August 21, 2004.
• Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, 1987–present.
• MacArthur Fellows Program, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship, 1988-1993.
• Ethiopian Government Award for academic excellence, 1991 (declined).
• Member, Ethiopian Parliament, representing the province of Shoa, 1974-75.

Books

• The Homily of Zär'a Ya'əqob's Mäshafä Bərhan on the Rite of Baptism and Religious Instruction CSCO, text, vol. 653/114, and trans., Vol. 654/115. Louvain: Peeters, 2013.
• Voices from Däbrä Zämäddo: Acts of Abba Bärtälomewos and Abba Yoḥannǝs 45 Miracles of Mary (Aethiopistische Forschungen 79), Wiesbaden 2013.
• A History of the first Estifanosite Monks. 2 vols. (ed. & tr.) Louvain: Peeters, 2011
• Amdafta Lawgahu (Let Me Entertain You for a Moment: An Amharic Autobiography), Collegeville, (Minnesota), 2008.
• The Ge'ez Acts of Abba Esṭifanos of Gwendagwende, 2 vols. (ed. & tr.). Louvain: Peeters Publishers, 2006, ISBN 978-90-429-1741-5
• Deqiqe Istifanos: Behigg Amlak (Hagiographies of the Estifanosite monks who flourished and were martyred in the fifteenth century, in Amharic), Collegeville (Minnesota), 2004.
• Ya’Abā Bā’rey Dersatoč (The Works of Abba Bā’rey with Other Documents Concerning the Oromo, in Amharic), Collegeville (Minnesota), 2002..
• Bahra Hassab (= Computus). (On the Ethiopian Calendar, with Annals of Ethiopian History, in Amharic), Collegeville (Minnesota), 2000.
• The Mariology of Emperor Zära Ya’qob of Ethiopia (Orientalia Christiana Analecta, no 242), Rome 1992.
• Beauty of the Creation, with Misrak Amare, University of Manchester, 1991.
• The Epistle of Humanity of Emperor Zär’a Ya’qob (Ṭomarä Tsb’t), Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium series, Vol. 522/Aeth. 95, tr. 523/Aeth. 96 (1991).
• The Faith of the Unctionists in the Ethiopian Church (Haymanot Msi’awit), Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium series, Vol. 517/Aeth. 91 (1990).
• A Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Collegeville, Vol. IX: Project Numbers 3501-4000, Collegeville, (Minnesota) 1987. ISBN 978-0-940250-55-0
• The Different Collection of Nägś Hymns of the Ethiopic Literature (Oikonomia no. 19), Erlangen (Germany), 1983.
• A Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Collegeville, Vol. VIII: Project Numbers 3001-3500, Collegeville, (Minnesota) 1985.
• A Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Collegeville, Vol. VII: Project Numbers 2501-3000, (with a checklist by William F. Macomber), Collegeville, (Minnesota) 1983.
• A Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Collegeville, Vol. VI: Project Numbers 2001-2500, (with a checklist by William F. Macomber), Collegeville, (Minnesota) 1982.
• A Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Collegeville, Vol. V: Project Numbers 1501-2000, (with a checklist by William F. Macomber) Collegeville, (Minnesota) 1981.
• A Catalogue of Ethiopian Manuscripts Microfilmed for the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Addis Ababa and for the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Collegeville, Vol. IV: Project Numbers 1101-1500, Collegeville, (Minnesota) 1979.
• Mark Twain’s Letters from Earth (adapted into Amharic from the German version, Tagebuch von Adam und Eva), Addis Ababa, 1968.
• Amharic Manual for Adult Learners (in Amharic), Addis Ababa, 1964.
• Amharic Manual for Teachers of Adult Learners (in Amharic), Addis Ababa, 1964.
• Das Verbalsystem im Äthiopischen. Ein morphologischer Vergleich mit den orientalischen semitischen Sprachen. Diss., Tübingen 1962

References

External links

• "Close Up and Personal", senamirmir.org