ABSTRACT
Traces of Syrian influences can be found in many branches of Ethiopian culture. This chapter points some of them: in the Old Ethiopic (Ge'ez) language; in the Ethiopic Bible translation; in religious literature; in church liturgy; and in architecture and art. Edward Ullendorff's purpose was the demonstration of Jewish roots in Ethiopian culture, for which he used inter alia linguistic arguments. A more complicated connection with Syriac culture lies behind the Glory of the Kings, a national epos of Ethiopia. Detecting Syrian influence in Ethiopian miniature painting is more complicated due to the fact that there are no Ethiopian manuscripts dating from the first millennium, and thus there is a time gap between the Ethiopian and Syrian items. The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, known also as the Acts of Adam, a medieval Ethiopian composition, is based on two pieces of Christian apocryphal literature - the Greek Life of Adam and Eve, and the Syriac Cave of Treasures.
