ABSTRACT
The issue of Syriac influences has always been a favourite in the field of Aksumite Ethiopia. The arguments in support of the historical reality of Syriac influences on Aksumite Ethiopia are essentially of three different orders: historical; linguistic; and text-critical. From the historical point of view, the data on which the argument is based are hagiographical texts of the fifteenth century, in other words sources that date from a thousand years after the events that they treat. The linguistic problem is, ultimately, the decisive one; for the question as posed by Ignazio Guidi 1888 points this clearly. The question, which, after all, is the secondary one, regards Syriac loanwords in Geez. Hans Jakob Polotsky's 1964 article was fundamental for this problem: he broadened the lexical and historical-cultural concept of 'Syriac' to the more general concept of 'Aramaic.
